Making sense of Russian political ambiguities

The past couple of weeks saw a number of truly tectonic events taking place simultaneously in the USA, in Russia, in Israel, in Syria, in Iran and in the EU. I think that it would also be reasonable to say that most of those who opposed the AngloZionist Empire have felt feelings ranging from mild disappointment to total dismay. I sure did not hear many people rejoicing, but if somebody was, they were in the minority (uncharacteristically, Mikhail Khazin, for example). These reactions are normal, we all form expectations which can be, and often are, disappointed. Still, even when the news is clearly bad it is helpful to keep a number of things in mind.

First, people, countries and events are not frozen in time. They are processes. Processes, by definition, are subject to change, evolution and (even radical) changes in direction.

Second, each process carries within itself the seeds of its own contradiction. This is what makes processes dynamic.

Third, people are imperfect. Even good people make mistakes, sometimes with tragic consequences. Yet it would be wrong to separate them all into either “infallible hero” or “abject villain and loser”. In fact, I would argue that any kind of mistake, especially a serious one, carries within itself its own contradiction which, in turn, can end up “energizing” the original process by creating a different set of circumstances.

All this is to say that the real world is not like Hollywood when the outcome of the story is only 90 minutes or so away. The real world is at war with the Empire and in this war, like in any other wars, there are mistakes and losses on both sides Both sides make mistakes and the results of these mistakes affect the future course of the war.

I would argue that in the past couple of weeks Russia suffered not one, but several PR disasters. I would also argue that the Zionists have had some tremendous PR successes. I will list them further below, but I want to suggest to you that PR disasters and successes are not quite the same as real-world, tangible victories. Furthermore, PR disasters and successes can sometimes be useful, as they reveal to the world previously overlooked, or underestimated, weaknesses. Finally, PR disasters and successes, while existing mostly in the realm of perceptions, can have a real-world effect, sometimes a dramatic one.

The usual chorus of Putin-haters who immediately declared final victory is completely mistaken and their reaction is the reflection of an infantile understanding of the complex world we live in. In the real world, a person like Putin can, and usually does, commit mistakes (PR and real-world mistakes) and the enemy can mount very effective counter-attacks. But the outcome of the war is not decided on a single battle. Furthermore, in politics, like in regular warfare, tactical mistakes and successes do not at all imply operational or, even less so, strategic successes. During WWII the German military usually performed better than the Soviet one on the tactical level, but the Soviets were superior on the operational and strategic levels. We all know how that war ended. If you want to read a good analysis and debunking of the “Putin caved in” nonsense, I recommend the article ”Russia Betrayed Syria”: Geopolitics through the eyes of a fearful “pro-Russia” Westerner” by Ollie Richardson.

The other extreme is to deny, against all evidence, that there is a problem or that mistakes have been made. That kind of stubborn flag-waving is actually unhelpful as mistakes are inevitable, and the first step towards mitigating them is to recognize them. The extreme version of that kind of flag-waving (pseudo-)patriotism is to denounce a person brining up problems as a traitor or a defeatist.

It is with all this in mind that I would like to revisit what has taken place and try to gauge what the real-world consequences of these PR events might be.

Part one: Putin disappoints

Quick summary: Putin re-appointed Medvedev, appointed Alexei Kudrin as Chairman of the Accounts Chamber of Russia and Vitalii Mutko as Deputy Prime Minister in charge of construction, he then hosted Bibi Netanyahu in the Kremlin while the latter bombed Syria right before, during and after Netanyahu’s visit. Finally, there is the disgraceful zig-zag about the S-300 for Syria: first, yes we will do it, then, no we won’t. All these events can, and should, be carefully analyzed and explained, but I don’t think that it makes sense to deny that most people feel a sense of disappointment over it all (except, of course, the bright geniuses who will claim that they knew all along that Putin was “fake”, but this is precisely the “Hollywood-thinking” types on whom any real analysis would be lost in the first place).

I would argue that even those who think that this is no big deal and that nothing terrible happened will not, if they are honest, deny that Putin must have known, without any doubt, that his decisions would be unpopular with the Russian public and that, very uncharacteristically for him, he deliberately chose to ignore his only public opinion and favor other considerations. That is something very new and, I think, something important.

There are roughly two camps vying for power inside the Kremlin: I call them the Atlantic Integrationists and the Eurasian Sovereignists. The former group is a pure product of the 1990s. We can think of them as “liberals”, IMF/Washington Consensus/WTO/WB types; folks who came to power thanks to the regime of oligarchs which ran Russia from about 1990 to 2000 and which was both deeply pro-American and which had extremely close ties to Israel and the various political Jewish and Zionist organizations in the West. The latter group is primarily a product of the armed forces and the security services. The “bridge” between the two is, by the way, the Russian military industrial complex in which both groups are represented. Unsurprisingly, most Russian “elites” (defined simply as people who made their fortune or, at least, a good living in the 1990s and after) support the Atlantic Integrationists, while most “regular” Russian people overwhelmingly support the Eurasian Sovereignists. This is why Putin is so popular and Medvedev never was. What is interesting is to look into how these groups relate to Israel and Zionism.

Atlantic Integrationists: unsurprisingly, they are pro-Israeli to the hilt. For them, Israel is a totally normal country, even to be admired, as they all have personal/family and business ties to Israelis in Israel and in the USA. While there is no official version of AIPAC in Russia, let’s just say that the ADL would give the Atlantic Integrationists a perfect score for loyalty and service.

Eurasian Sovereignists: here, things are much more complicated. Some Eurasian Sovereignists are profoundly anti-Zionist ideologically, while others don’t really care. But even for those who have no love for Israel, or who are deeply opposed to the Zionist influence in Russia in the 1990s or even today (especially in the Russian media), do not necessarily find it useful to say much about it. Why? Primarily because they think, and I would say correctly so, that being pro-Russian (in the sense of patriotic and wanting a truly sovereign Russia) does not have to entail being anti-Zionist, anti-Israeli or anti-Jewish. Furthermore, there are, and have always been, patriotic Russian Jews who have been an integral part of the Russian culture and history. Just like I often write that for Russians, Muslims are not “aliens” in the way many westerners perceive them, and Jews are not “aliens” for Russians either. This is why you can often meet the following Russian type: they will bitch and complain about all the Jewish “crooks and politicians”, but have “good” Jews as their closest and best friends. This is not blindness at all, this is the expression of the fact that to loathe an ideology is one thing, but to collectively feel hostility towards a group of people you know very well is a completely different proposition. I will never cease to repeat it: Russia is, has always been, and still remains a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society in which the presence of “others” simply is a fact of life.

Then there is the WWII factor, which the Israelis and Russians Zionists have been extremely skilled at exploiting to the max: Russians and Jew are united in a common memory of the horrors the Nazis inflicted upon them and they also often sense that West Europeans and US Americans are, well, maybe not quite as sincerely sympathetic to their plight even if political correctness forces them to pretend to be. As a result, you will find that most anti-Zionist Russians, while surely not “ADL compatible” in their views, hate the Nazis and everything western racism stands for no less than Jews would. If fact, when faced with the modern wave of rabid russophobia, many Russians say “we are the new Jews”, meaning that everything evil on the planet is blamed on them regardless of fact or logic. Like it or not, but that common memory does bind Russians and Jews in a profound way.

I can already imagine the rage and disgust my words above will trigger in western Jew-haters for whom the world is split into two groups: Jew-haters (good) and all those who “sold out” to “the Jews” (as if there was such monad as “the Jews”). All I can tell them is this: don’t project your reductionist world view on others, especially not on Russia. If you do, you will never “get” Russia and you will be stuck with the kind of proverbial nonsense like “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma”.

Part two: The Empire Strikes back

The past couple of years have been terrible for the Zionists, both in the USA and in the rest of the world. First, there was the crushing defeat of their candidate in the USA and the election of a candidate they rabidly hated. Then there was the Russian military intervention in Syria which prevented them from overthrowing the last secular “resistance” regime in the Arab world. In Russia, “their” Atlantic Integrationists were slowly but surely losing power and all in all, the western sanctions turned out to be a blessing for Russia. Putin’s popularity was soaring to new heights and the the global “Zionist house” was on fire. In the USA, the Zionists counter-attacked with lightening speed and with a devastating effectiveness, breaking Trump in about 30 days (as shown by Trump’s betrayal of Flynn and later Bannon). After that, Trump made appeasing AIPAC his full-time job.

But that left another problem: while the US was re-taken under control, Russia, in the meantime, had succeeded in developing the capabilities to completely negate the entire US ABM system, to make much of the surface fleet obsolete and severely to impair the ability of US airpower to operate in airspace contested by modern Russian air defenses. In other words, in purely military terms, this was “game, set, match for Russia”.

[Sidebar: to those shocked by this statement and who would dismiss this as “Russian propaganda” I will submit the following: US military power is predicated on the following:

The ability to deploy a carrier strike group anywhere on the planet.

The ability to protect that carrier strike group from any major counter-attack.

The ability to strike any country in the world with enough missile and airstrikes to break its will to continue to fight.

The complete and total control of the skies (air supremacy). US forces simply never train for a combat scenario where they don’t control the skies or, even less so, when their enemy does.

The very strong belief that no enemy would dare attack major overseas US bases.

The very strong, quasi religious, belief that US military technology is superior.

The absolute certitude that the US mainland would never be hit in a counter-attack.

None of the previous beliefs are based in reality anymore and, in fact, their opposite is true. This is why when dealing with a near-peer or peer enemy the US armed forces are more or less useless. The only very notable exception is the US nuclear triad and the US submarine fleet. The current situation in Syria (and by implication, Iran and Russia) is finally gradually bringing this new reality to the awareness of US decision-makers and military commanders.]

This is why Russia, albeit with only a tiny contingent, succeeded in turning the tide of the war in Syria and even now presents the AngloZionists with a frustrating challenge: a (comparatively) tiny contingent of Russian forces completely derailed the Empire’s plans for the entire Middle-East: not only is there a real change of peace breaking out in Syria, but the situation is far from having the Takfiris and Shia killing each other in Syria and Lebanon (a key part of the Israeli plan for the region). Hezbollah, Iran and the Syrians are now in a victorious coalition on the ground with the “Axis of Kindness” forces roundly defeated.

So the Israelis decided on a simple, very effective and very dangerous counter offensive plan: 1) start a war between the USA and Iran by creating an acute crisis as a result of the US reneging on its legal obligations and 2) bait Iran into a counter-attack in response to Israel air operations against Iranian and pro-Iranian forces in Syria. But for that plan to succeed, Russia needed to stay out.

So far, at least, it looks like the Israelis have convinced the Russians to stay out. But is that perception really well founded?

Part three: factors inhibiting Russia

First and foremost, as I have already explained in great detail in the past, Russia has absolutely no legal or moral obligation to support, protect, arm, train or otherwise assist anybody in the Middle-East. None. Russia has already done more for Syria than the entire Arab/Muslim world combined with the notable exception of Iran and Hezbollah. As for the Arab/Muslim world, it has never done anything for Russia and still is doing nothing. So those who like to whine about Russia not doing enough simply have no case whatsoever.

Second, the Russian air defense and air forces in Syria have only one mission: to protect the Russian task force in Syria. Whoever got the idea that Russia is supposed to shoot down Israeli aircraft or missiles over Syria has not been paying attention to public Russian statements about this. The notion that the Russian task force in Syria is there to engage US/NATO/CENTCOM forces is just as ridiculous.

Third, and contrary to a frequently held misconception, the Syrian government, Iran, Hezbollah and Iran have different agendas in the Middle-East. Yes, they are de-facto allies. They also have the same enemies, they often work together, but they all think of their own interests first. In fact, at least in the case of Iran and Russia, there are clear signs that there are several ‘camps’ inside the Russian and Iranian government and the ruling elites which have different agendas (I highly recommend Thierry Meyssan’s recent articles on this topic here and here). To think that any or all of them will instantly come to the defense of any one of them is supremely naïve, especially when the aggressor (Israel) is backed by the full power of an already warmongering Empire run amok.

Fourth, the sad reality is that Russia, unlike Iran, never took a principled position concerning the nature and behavior of the state of Israel. I very much deplore that, and I consider it a shame, but I hasten to add that this shame is shared by every single country on the planet except Iran, Bolivia and, maybe, to some extent Turkey. Not to excuse anything, but only to explain, there is very little awareness amongst Russians about the true nature and behavior of the Israelis, and most of what makes it to the media is hopelessly pro-Israeli (hence the almost constant presence of the likes of Iakov Kedmi, Avigdor Eskin, Evgenii Satanovskii and other Israeli agents – they don’t even really bother to deny it – on Russian TV). The Russian media, especially the TV stations, could easily get a “ADL seal of approval”. Simply put: the vast majority of Russians don’t feel that the plight of the Palestinians or the constant Israeli attacks on neighboring countries is their problem.

[Sidebar: such a view can appear very self-centered until you recall the kind of “gratitude” Russia got in the past from her former interventions. There are countries out there who exist only because Russia decided that they should exist and which today are members of NATO. I won’t even go into the “Slavic brotherhood” or, for that matter, “Orthodox brotherhood” nonsense. The only people with whom Russia truly has a strong bond are the Serbs. The rest of them were more than happy to backstab Russia as soon as convenient. Thus history has taught Russia a painful lesson: give up on any naïve notions of gratitude or brotherhood. Very sad, but true. Today, even countries like Kazakhstan, Armenia or Georgia are showing a very ambivalent (and even ambiguous) attitude towards Russia. As a result the idea that Russia owes some form of protection to anybody out there has almost no support in Russia.]

Fifth, even the Eurasian Sovereignist’s analysts and media in Russia have this absolutely amazing “blind spot” about Israel and the Zionist ideology: I think of analysts whom I sincerely admire and respect (like Sergei Mikheev or Ruslan Ostashko) and whose analysis is superb on pretty much everything and who simply never mention the power and influence of what is clearly a powerful pro-Israeli lobby inside Russia, especially in the Russian media (even when they mention the power of the Israel lobby in the USA). Considering how different the tone of much of the Russian Internet is, the only explanation I have for this situation is that any public anti-Israeli or anti-Zionist statements are career-terminators in Russia (we also clearly see the same phenomenon at work with RT and Sputnik). You can completely forget about any Russian religious figures speaking up, and that goes both for the Orthodox and Muslims: they all take their orders from the Kremlin and have no personal opinion on anything (I am only talking about the “official” senior religious leaders – the rank and file faithful do not display this type of behavior).

Sixth, there are plenty of people in Russia who fully realize two simple things: first, a war between Iran and the Empire would be disastrous for the Empire (and therefore great for Russia) and, second, the Iranians are also “problematic” allies at best who have their own version of “Atlanticists” (remember the “Gucci Revolution”?) and “Sovereignists”, which means that tensions, or warfare, between Iran and the USA would be greatly advantageous for the anti-US camp inside Iran (just like the rabid russophobia of western politicians did more to re-elect Putin than any of his own campaign rhetoric). To put it crudely, if the Israelis are dumb enough to attack the Iranians, and if the US Americans are subservient enough to Israel to join into the fight – why should Russia take great risks and openly stand in the way? Finally, any conflict with Iran (which will most likely also involve the KSA) will have oil prices skyrocket. What do you think this will do to the Russian economy?

Seventh, the war which Israel is currently waging against Iran and pro-Iranian forces in Syria is entirely a symbolic war. Even the Pantsir which was recently destroyed by the Israelis (with the usual pro-Israeli PR campaign) was not even on combat alert: the unit was not even camouflaged and its crew was standing around and smoking. The Israelis are masters at making this look all very impressive and heroic, but in military terms, this is nonsense: they clearly hit a unit which was not even part of the action (whatever that “action” was).

The basic rule of warfare still remains valid today: unless you can put boots on the ground, your efforts will never have a decisive military effect. And thank God for the fact that nobody in the “Axis of Kindness” has any credible ground forces; not the Israelis (remember 2006?); not the Saudis (look at Yemen); and most definitely not the USA (when is the last time they beat somebody capable of resisting?). That is why the AngloZionist Empire always tries to use proxies like the Kurds or the “good terrorists” to fight on its behalf. Thus the Russian military specialists fully understand that even if the Israelis bombed Syria for the next several months, they would not be able to change the fundamental correlation of forces on the ground. Hence, the Israeli strikes are mostly about PR.

Still, for all these reasons, and more, we all have to come to terms with the fact that Russia is what I would call a “limited actor” in the Middle-East. I have been saying from day 1 – when some were having visions of Russian airborne divisions (supported by MiG-31s!) landing near Damascus – that “the Russians are not coming” (see here, here, here, here and here). Furthermore, I tried to explain that the Russians are under no obligation whatsoever to protect or save anyone anywhere, including in the Middle-East (see here). Finally, I tried to explain that the Russian-Israeli relationship is a multi-layered and complex one (see here) and that Putin is facing some tremendous internal opposition which he has failed to successfully tackle (see here). But trying to describe a complex reality is often a futile task in a world in which simple, black and white, binary-kind of representations are the rule and where every complex argument is immediately turned into a long list of straw-man misrepresentations. This is still very much the case with the latest developments.

Those who say that “Putin sold out” are wrong, but so are those who think that “the Russians are coming” to save anybody. It is just not going to happen. Russia will not fight a war against Israel (unless she is attacked first) and Russia will only support Iranian operations and policies insofar as the Iranians negotiate a deal with the Russian and coordinate their efforts. As soon as Iran, or Hezbollah, make a move without prior consultations with Moscow, they will be on their own to deal with the consequences.

Part four: is Russia caving in to Western and Israeli pressure?

Setting aside the issue of the Russian role in the Middle-East, there remains the issue of why Putin failed to deliver on what was clearly a mandate of the Russian people to get rid of at least of the most hated personalities in the Russian government. Most folks in the West know how toxic Kudrin is, but the promotion of Mutko is nothing short of amazing too. This is the man who is most to blame for the gross mismanagement of the entire “Russia doping scandal” operation and who is absolutely despised for his incompetence. Now he is in charge of construction. There is even a good joke about this: Putin put Mutko in charge of the construction industry because the Russian construction market badly needs some doping. Funny, sure, but only so far. When I see Rogozin removed for his “poor management” (now put in charge of the Russian rocket and space industry) and Mutko promoted, I wonder if they have all gone crazy in the Kremlin.

We can all argue ad nauseam why exactly this has happened, but let’s first agree on one simple fact: Putin has failed to purge the Atlantic Integrationists. The big expectation of him getting a strong personal mandate from the people and then finally kicking them out of the Kremlin has, alas, been proven completely unfounded. There are a couple of interesting explanations out there such as:

Objectively, the Medvedev government has done a very decent, if not good job, with the economy. True, some/many believe that mistakes were made, that there were better economic policies available, but it would be hard to argue that the government completely failed. In fact, there are some pretty strong arguments which indicate that the Medvedev government (see this article discussing this in detail and it’s machine translation here and this article and its machine translation here)

Putin’s very ambitious internal economic growth program needs the support of the interests represented by the Atlantic Integrationists. In fact, internal development and economic growth are the core of his very ambitious political program. Possibly not the best time to purge the Kremlin from those who represent the interests of Russian big business.

The Medvedev “clan” has been weakened (see here for details) and now that it has been put on a much shorter “technocratic” leash, it is far less dangerous. In fact, it has been been subdued by Putin and his allies. Lavrov and Shoigu are both staying, by the way.

Trump’s reckless behavior is deeply alienating the Europeans to whom Putin is now presenting negotiation partners which they would trust (imagine Merkel and Rogozin in the same room – that would not go well!). Check out this excellent article by Frank Sellers in The Duran looking at the immense potential for Russia-EU cooperation.

Meh. I am personally unconvinced. How can Putin say that he wants serious reforms while keeping the exact same type of people in command? If indeed the Medvedev government did such a great job, then we is there any need for such major reforms? If Putin’s power base is indeed, as I believe it to be, in the people, then why is he trying to appease the financial elites by catering to their interests and agenda? Most crucially, how can Russia free herself from the financial and economic grip of the Empire when the Empire’s 5th column agents are (re-)appointed to key positions? And in all of Russia was there really nobody more qualified than Mutko or Kudrin to appoint to these positions?

Of course, there always this “Putin knows something you don’t” but I have always had a problem with that kind of logic which is essentially an open-ended universal cop-out. I hope that I am wrong, but to me this does strongly suggest that Putin is on the retreat, that he has made a major mistake and that the Empire has scored a major victory. And I will gladly admit that I have yet to hear an explanation which would explain this, never mind offer one of my own.

On the external front, has Russia caved in to Israeli pressure? Ruslan Ostashko offers a very good analysis of why this is hardly the case: (I don’t necessarily agree with his every conclusion, but he does make a very good case:

Yes, Netanyahu *did* with his repeated strikes on Syria, thumb his nose at Putin (that famous Israeli chutzpah at work for you!), and yes, Putin wining and dining Netanyahu was a painful sight and a PR-disaster. But on substance, did Israel get Russia to “betray Iran”? No, and not because the Russians are so heroically principled, but because Israel really has nothing to offer Russia. All Israel has is a powerful pro-Isreal lobby inside Russia, that is true. But the more they use that lobby the more visible it becomes, the more questions at least Eurasian Sovereignists will ask.

The Israelis sure don’t want to give the impression that the run Russia the way they run the USA, and Netanyahu’s reception in the Kremlin recently has already raised a lot of eyebrows and the impression that Putin caved in to the demands of this arrogant bastard are not helping Putin, to put it mildly. A lot of Russian analysts (Viktor Baranets, Maksim Shevchenko, Leonid Ivashov) wonder what kind of arguments Netanyahu used with Putin, and the list of possibilities is an outright uninspiring one.

Part five – another truism: there is a difference between excellent, good, average, bad and terrible

Even if the situation in Russia has changed for the worse, this is hardly a reason to engage in the usual “Putin sold out” hysteria or to declare that “Russia caved in”. Even when things are bad, there is still a huge difference between bad and worse. As of right now, Putin is not only the best possible person to be the President of Russia, Russia also continues to be the objective leader of the resistance to the Empire. Again, the black-and-white “Hollywood” type of mindset entirely misses the dynamic nature of what is going on. For example, it is quite clear to me that a new type of Russian opposition is slowly forming. Well, it always existed, really – I am talking about people who supported Putin and the Russian foreign policy and who disliked Medvedev and the Russian internal policies. Now the voice of those who say that Putin is way too soft in his stance towards the Empire will only get stronger. As will the voices of those who speak of a truly toxic degree of nepotism and patronage in the Kremlin (again, Mutko being the perfect example). When such accusations came from rabid pro-western liberals, they had very little traction, but when they come from patriotic and even nationalist politicians (Nikolai Starikov for example) they start taking on a different dimension. For example, while the court jester Zhirinovskii and his LDPR party loyally supported Medvedev, the Communist and the Just Russia parties did not. Unless the political tension around figures like Kudrin and Medvedev is somehow resolved (maybe a timely scandal?), we might witness the growth of a real opposition movement in Russia, and not one run by the Empire. It will be interesting to see if Putin’s personal ratings will begin to go down and what he will have to do in order to react to the emergence of such a real opposition.

Much will depend on how the Russian economy will perform. If, courtesy of Trump’s megalomaniacal policies towards Iran and the EU, Russia’s economy receives a massive injection of funds (via high energy prices), then things will probably stabilize. But if the European leaders meekly cave in and join the sanctions against Iran and if the US succeeds in imposing even further sanctions on Russia, then the Medvedev government will face a serious crisis and the revival of the Russian economy promised by Putin will end up in an embarrassing failure and things could also go from bad to even worse. As for right now, our always courageous Europeans are busy handing the latest Eurovision prize to an Israeli (Eurovision prizes are always given to countries the EU leaders want to support) while the self-same Israelis “celebrate” the new US Embassy in Jerusalem by murdering 55 Palestinians (and promised to kill many more). So let’s just say that I am not very hopeful that the Europeans will grow a spine, some balls, a brain or, least of all, acquire some moral fiber anytime soon. But maybe they will be greedy enough to reject some of the most outrageous US demands? Maybe. Hopefully. After all, the European supine subservience to the USA has to the EU billions of dollars already…

Part six: dealing with the S-300 fiasco

The entire S-300 business for Syria has been an ugly mess but, again, more in the PR realm than in the real world. The constant “we will deliver, no we won’t, yes we will, no we won’t” creates a terrible impression. The explanations for this zig-zag make things only worse. Let’s take a look at what those who do not disapprove of this zig zag are saying. Their arguments go more or less as follows.

The S-300s would place the Israeli Air Force at risk not only over Syria, but also over Lebanon and even Israel. This is overkill because Russia never moved into Syria to fight a war against Israel. So the entire idea of delivering S-300s to Syria was a bad idea in the first place.

Syria does not really need S-300s. Lavrov and others mention the S-300s as a threat (because the Israelis really fear these systems), but in reality what Syria needs are Buk-M2E (see analysis in Russian and it’s machine translation here).

The Russians made a deal with Israel and in exchange for the non-delivery of the S-300s (see analysis in Russian here and the machine translation here) they are getting something very tangible: Israel will stop supporting the “good terrorists” in Syria thereby making it much easier for Damascus to finish them off.

I don’t like these arguments very much except for the 2nd one. First, I do agree that the Buk-M2E is a very modern and capable system with some advantages over the S-300 in the Syrian context, but I would still add that the infamous sentence “Syria has got all it needs” is an absolutely terrible and ridiculous statement (read Marko Marjanović devastating critique of it in his article “Israel Took out a Syrian Pantsir Air Defense Unit, S-200 Radars. Russia: ‘No S-300 Transfer, Syria Has All It Needs’” for Russia Insider). I think that this “Syria has all it needs” is yet another of these self-inflicted PR disasters and an absolutely ridiculous statement until you take it one step deeper.

So, if by “Syria has all it needs” you mean “Syria has no need for any other help” or “the Syrian air defenses can deal with any Israeli or US attack” – then this is total nonsense. Agreed. But if you just rephrase it and say “Syria has all the types of weapons it needs”, then I think that this is basically true. By far the single most important air defense system for the Syrians is the Pantsir-S1, not the S-300 or any other system.

As early as June of last year I wrote a column for the Unz Review entitled “Russia vs. America in Syria” in which I had a section entitled “Forget the S-300/S-400, think Pantsir”. I wrote that at a time when most observers were paying no attention to the Pantsir at all, and the entire world seemed obsessed with the S-300 and S-400s. I still believe that the Pantsir is the key to the outcome of the struggle for the Syrian airspace. But Syria, and Iran, need many more of them. Basically, the ideal situation is numerous Russian, Iranian and Syrian Pantsirs all over Syria, all of them integrated with already existing Russian long radar capabilities and supported by modern electronic warfare. With enough Pantsirs deployed and on full alert (not like the one the Israelis recently destroyed) and fully integrated into a single air defense network, the Syrians would be able to mount a very robust air defense capability, at a relatively cheap cost, without offering the Israelis any high value and lucrative targets.

Pantsirs can deal with most of the US and Israeli threats even if, unlike their S-300/S-400 counterparts, they cannot engage aircraft at long distance (hence the suggestion to deploy some Buk-M2E’s to approximate that capability). The truth is that S-300’s were never designed to operate more or less autonomously or to intercept cruise missiles or bombs. Yes, they *can* do that, but they were designed to deal with long range high value targets and within a multi-layered system which included many other systems, such as the Buks, Tors, Pantsirs and even Iglas and Verbas MANPADs. That multi-layered air defense system is currently abscent in Syria and would take a lot of time and money to deploy. In contrast the Pantsirs can function completely autonomously, can detect any target up to 50km away, track and engage it 20km away, protect itself and others with its 30mm guns up to 3km away. Pantsirs can even do that while moving up to 30km/h on rough terrain. This makes it an extraordinarily effective and survivable air defense system, which is relatively easy to hide, deploy and engage with no warning for the enemy. By the way, the Pantsir can also use both its 30mm canons and its missiles against ground targets, including tanks. No current air defense system can boast such a combination of capabilities.

Russia needs to deliver as many of those Pantsir-S1 systems to Syria as physically possible. A large number of Pantsir’s in Syria would present Israel and the USA with a far bigger headache than a few S-300s. Currently there is something in the range of 40-60 of such Pantsir’s in Syria. This is far from enough considering the magnitude of the threat and the capabilities of the threat. That number needs to be at least doubled.

However, and regardless of the real-world technical and military aspects of the issue, the Russian zig-zags gave the world a terrible impression: the Israelis attack a Russian ally, then the Russian promise to do something about it, then Netanyahu goes to Russia, and Putin meekly caves in. This is all a massive self-inflicted political faceplant and yet another major mistake by Putin and other Russian leaders.

Frankly, the main Russian mistake here was to *ever* mention S-300s deliveries to the Syrians.

Part Seven: the lessons from the Divine Victory of 2006 – survival is victory

“We did not think, even one per cent, that the capture would lead to a war at this time and of this magnitude. You ask me, if I had known on July 11 … that the operation would lead to such a war, would I do it? I say no, absolutely not”

Amazing, no? Hassan Nasrallah spoke these words after Hezbollah’s superb victory against the “invincible Tsahal”. The truth is that Hezbollah had underestimated the violence and magnitude of the Israeli attack. Not only that, but Israel did not lose a single inch of its territory while all of Lebanon, not just the south, was viciously bombed and scores of civilians died. Hezbollah did destroy a few “indestructible” Merkava tanks and almost sank the Israeli Navy’s flagship. But compared to the damage and pain inflicted by the Israelis, this was nothing. Even Hezbollah’s missiles had a comparatively small effect on the Israeli population (mostly just the typical Israeli panic). And yet, even if politicians did not want to admit it, it was as clear as can be for both sides: Hezbollah had won a “Divine Victory” while the Israelis had suffered the worst defeat in their history. Why? For a very simple reason: Hezbollah survived.

That’s it and that’s crucial. Olmert and his goons had set out to destroy Hezbollah (or, at least, disarm it). This is what Trump will probably try to do to the Islamic Republic of Iran, and this is what the AngloZionist Empire is trying to do to Russia: eliminate it.

Once the goals are thus defined, then the definition of victory is also obvious: surviving. That’s it.

For Hezbollah, Iran or Russia to defeat Israel, the USA or the entire Empire, there is no need to plant a flag on the enemy’s main symbolic building like what Soviet soldiers did in Germany. All they need to do to win is simply to survive because the other’s sides survival is predicated upon their elimination, it’s really that simple. Israel cannot claim victory as long as Hezbollah exists, the USA cannot claim world Hegemony if Iran openly defies it, and the AngloZionist Empire cannot clain world hegemony over the our planet as long as the Russian civilizational realm openly challenges it. So while all the talk about the Iranians wanting to “wipe Israel off the map” is just a typical ziomedia invention, it is true that by their very existence Hezbollah, Iran and Russia do represent an existential threat to Israel, the USA and the Empire.

This is the biggest and the fatal weakness of the AngloZionist Empire: its survival depends on the colonization or destruction of every other country out there. Every independent country, whether big and powerful, or small and weak, represents an unacceptable challenge to the hegemony of the “indispensable nation” and the “chosen people”, which now try to rule over us all. This might well be the ultimate example of Hegelian dialectics at work in geopolitics: an Empire whose power generates it’s own demise. Many empires have come and gone in history, but the globalized world we live in, this dialectical contradiction is tremendously potentialized by the finite conditions in which empires have to operate.

Conclusion one: support for Putin and Russia must only be conditional

Over the past few years, Putin and Russia haters were predicting doom and gloom and all sorts of betrayals (or Novorussia, Syria, Iran, etc.) by Putin and Russia. Then time passed and all their predictions proved false. Instead of just talking, the Russians took action which proved the nay-sayers wrong. This time however, the Russians said and did a number of things which gave *a lot* of fuel to the Putin-haters and the only way to undo that is to take real action to prove them wrong. Right now as a result of these self-inflicted PR-disasters Russia looks very bad, even inside Russia were many Putin supporters are confused, worried and disappointed.

Externally, the Syrian and, especially, the Iranians need to come to terms with the fact that Russia is an imperfect ally, one which sometimes can help, but one which will always place its personal interests above any other consideration. In a personal email to me Eric Zuesse wrote “I think that Putin and Netanyahu are negotiating how far Israel can go and what Russia can accept — and what cooperation each will provide to the other — drawing the red lines of acceptability, for each side”. I think that he is spot on, but I also think that Putin is wrong in trying to make a deal with Israel, especially if a deal is at the expense of Iran. Ostashko is right. Objectively Israel has very little to offer Russia. But if this kind of collaboration between Russia and Israel continues, especially if Iran is attacked, then we will know that the Israel lobby inside Russia is behind these policies which go counter to the Russian national interest. We will soon find out.

In the meantime, Lavrov can’t try to get a deal going with Israel and, at the same time, whine about the “US Plan on Arab Troops Deployment in Syria ‘Sovereignty Violation’”! How about the never-ending violation by Israel of Syria’s sovereignty? How it is less repugnant than the one being perpetrated by the USA? Are such statements not fundamentally hypocritical?

We can observe a paradox here: Putin has criticized the evil immorality of the western society and imperial policies many times (most famously in Munich and at the UN). But Putin has never said anything about the evil immorality of the state of Israel. And yet Israel is the center of gravity, the nexus, of the entire AngloZionist Empire, especially since the Neocons turned Trump into their subservient lackey. In this, and in so many other areas, Russia needs to follow the example of Iran whose leaders have shown far more morality and principled policies in spite of Iran being much smaller and comparatively weaker than Russia.

In 2006 a thousand men or so of Hezbollah dared to defy the entire AngloZionist Empire (the US was, as always, backing Israel to the hilt) and they prevailed. Russian soldiers have shown time and again, including recently in Syria, they they have the same type of courage. But Russian politicians really seem to be of a much more tepid and corruptible type, and there is always the risk that Putin might gradually become less of an officer and more of a politician. And this, in turn, means that those of us who oppose the Empire and support Putin and Russia must imperatively make that support conditional upon a clearly stated set of moral and spiritual principles, not on a “my country right or wrong” kind of loyalty or, even less so, on a “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” kind of fallacy. Should Putin continue in his apparent attempts to appease the Israelis a new type of internal opposition to his rule might gain power inside Russia and new internal tensions might be added to the already existing exernal ones.

Right now Putin still has a lot of “credibility capital” left in spite of his recent mistakes. However, Putin recent decisions have raised a lot of unpleasant questions which must be answered and will so in time. In the meantime, as they say in the USA, “hope for the best, prepare for the worst, and settle for anything in the middle”. The Scripture also warns us not to make idols of leaders: “Trust not in princes, nor in the children of men, in whom there is no safety” (Ps 145:3 LXX). The worldly evil we are fighting, today in the shape of the AngloZionist Empire, is but a manifestation of a much deeper, spiritual evil: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12). The young men and women from the Shia movement Amal got it right when they chose the name “Party of God” for their movement when they created Hezbollah in 1985. And Iran was right when it became an Islamic Republic: if we want to defeat the Empire we need to always let spiritual matters and moral crieria remain above any of our “pragmatic” worldly political considerations or national/ethnic loyalties: that is how we can defeat those who place a dollar value on absolutely everything they see in their narrow materialistic worldview.

Conclusion two: the quest for “Russian values”

Russian political ambiguities are the direct result of the fact that Russia, as whole, has yet to define what “Russian values” really are. The historical Russia was founded on Patristic Christianity and the Roman civilizational model and the Soviet Union on Marxism-Leninism. The 1990s marked the total triumph of materialism run amok. But unlike Hezbollah or Iran, the “New Russia” (as I like to call it) is not based on anything other than a Constitution written mostly by US advisors and their proxies and a general opposition to the western civilizational model (especially since 2014). Being against something is not an inspiring, or even tenable, political or moral stance (as the White Guards discovered during the Russian civil war). Furthermore, in her confrontation with an AngloZionist Empire which stands for absolutely nothing besides base instincts, Russia needs to stand *for* something, not just against something else. As long as Russia will not firmly define and proclaim a set of spiritual/moral values she stands for, the current zigs-zags will continue and Russian policies will prove to be inconsistent, at best.

[Sidebar: here I want to contrast the Russian society at large with the Russian armed forces who, besides having a lot of good equipment, have a very strong and clear ethos and a rock solid understanding and clarity about what they stand for. This is why Russian soldiers have consistently and spontaneously been willing to sacrifice their lives. The Russian civilian society still lacks that kind of clarity, and Russian politicians, who are no better in Russia than elsewhere, often make use of that. The Russian armed forces are also the one institution with the strongest historical memory and the deepest roots in Russian history. I would argue that they are the only institution in modern Russia whose roots truly go back to before the 1917 Revolution and even much further back than that. As descendant of “White Russians” myself I have always found it uncanny and, frankly, amazing how much closer I have felt to Russian military officers than to Russian civilians. To me it often feels as if there were two types of Russians simultaneously coexisting: the “new Russian” type (still in the process of being defined) and the military officer corps (Soviet or post-Soviet). That latter type almost instinctively made sense to me and often felt like family. This is hardly a scientific observation, but this has been my consistent personal experience].

There is a very high likelihood that Israel will succeed in triggering a US attack on Iran. If/when that happens, this will trigger a political crisis inside Russia because the space for the current political ambiguities will be dramatically reduced. On moral and on pragmatic grounds, Russia will have to decide whether she can afford to be a bystander or not. This will not be an easy choice as their shall be no consensus on what to do inside the ruling elites. But the stakes will be too high and the consequences of inaction prohibitive. My hope is that a major military conflict will result in a sharp increase of the power and influence of the military “lobby” inside the Kremlin. Eventually and inevitably, the issue of Israel and Zionism will have to be revisited and the pro-Israeli lobby inside Russia dealt with, lest Russia follow the same path to self-destruction as the USA. For this reason the concept of “true sovereignization” is the one patriotic slogan/goal that Eurasian Sovereignists must continue to promote (regardless of the actual terminology used) because it points towards the real problems in Russian internal and foreign policies which must be addressed and resolved. This will be a long and difficult process, with victories and setbacks. We better get used to the idea that what happened in the past couple of weeks will happen again in the future.

The Saker

The Essential Saker II: Civilizational Choices and Geopolitics / The Russian challenge to the hegemony of the AngloZionist Empire

Leave a Reply

Leave a Reply

Click here to get more info on formatting

(1) Leave the name field empty if you want to post as Anonymous. It's preferable that you choose a name so it becomes clear who said what. E-mail address is not mandatory either. The website automatically checks for spam. Please refer to our moderation policies for more details. We check to make sure that no comment is mistakenly marked as spam. This takes time and effort, so please be patient until your comment appears. Thanks.

(2) 10 replies to a comment are the maximum.

(3) Here are formating examples which you can use in your writing:
<b>bold text</b> results in bold text
<i>italic text</i> results in italic text
(You can also combine two formating tags with each other, for example to get bold-italic text.)
<em>emphasized text</em> results in emphasized text
<strong>strong text</strong> results in strong text
<q>a quote text</q> results in a quote text (quotation marks are added automatically)
<cite>a phrase or a block of text that needs to be cited</cite> results in:a phrase or a block of text that needs to be cited
<blockquote>a heavier version of quoting a block of text...</blockquote> results in:

a heavier version of quoting a block of text that can span several lines. Use these possibilities appropriately. They are meant to help you create and follow the discussions in a better way. They can assist in grasping the content value of a comment more quickly.

and last but not least:
<a href=''http://link-address.com''>Name of your link</a> results in Name of your link

(4)No need to use this special character in between paragraphs:&nbsp;You do not need it anymore. Just write as you like and your paragraphs will be separated.The "Live Preview" appears automatically when you start typing below the text area and it will show you how your comment will look like before you send it.

(5) If you now think that this is too confusing then just ignore the code above and write as you like.

South Africa my eye!
We should have closed the embassies and tossed out the ambassadors of Israel and the US on their arses – and cut off all diplomatic and economic ties with both. …. And closed down all those foreign ‘democracy’ NGOs that are playing their John Perkins games here!

At the very least we’d get no more chlorine infested, hormone infected, GMO ingested goddam-bloody stinky Yankee chicken dump!

First, it takes guts to look at things we don’t really want to see. There’re things in this analysis that made me feel sad. However, it is like a medical diagnosis- once the nature of the disease is known, the cure can be procured.

Next, I can help but think of “The Lord of The rings” saga. Things are very complex, and there is always a chance that the weak ( or those who appear to be weak) might actually win the battle (or win the peace) due to the very nature of its weakness.

Man have you completely fallen into the “Putin sold out hysteria” you yourself are accusing others of, and (no offense) in such a dystopian way that one wonder if you are off your anti-depressant meds?

This is the fourth such unbearable article and i think you really should do something about it, i mean really! Give at least VVP more credit for his achievements where it’s due, and while doing so do you really think that he is planning to top off his career and life work by giving in to the anglo-zionists? Meh, you’r supposed to be the one with faith.

About the S-300’s, have you been giving any thought at all to the possibility that the AD system (that Syria ordered before the war) could well have been delivered already? Russia was strictly speaking in present tense. It is already known and reported that the large landing ship Filishenkov was unloading in Tartus a few weeks ago (after F.UK.US and “israel’s” attacks) under an aerosol smokescreen by giant compressors, why on earth do you think would they do that?

It sure wouldn’t hurt to have them there, not only because Syrian AD crews has been trained for them, but also since it will indeed come in handy when “israel” next time (and oh they will), break some promises by attacking and putting Russians in harms way, like they did recently. which will give Russia the final pretext. It would be one h*ll of a “element of surprise” you know since “israel” already has crossed that line.

Seriously, you have to reread the article again, and again. He presented the latest events, in regards to Russia and Putin, with a huge spectrum of views. This is a very level headed article, almost too cold to be categorized as ‘alarmists”, or with any flavor of “hysteria”. Also, once again, what made it special for me, is that the spiritual aspect of this battle was not overlooked; the invisible, is too enormous to be ignored.

Why can’t the saker step back for a moment to analyze the “known facts” to try and find meaning to it all? The information does means something. If the interpretation of facts challenge the current position then so be it. If it produces a change in understanding, closer to truth, then that is the goal.

It is wise to examine where one stands and not just take it for granted, making heartfelt, false assumptions risking self-delusion.

Mikhas, the S-300s in themselves are a ‘red herring’, they are almost not relevant for Syrian air defense. The real systems needed, as indicated, are many more Pantsir-S1 systems, which are the best of their kind for combating missiles and/or invading hostile aircraft.

It seems clear, to me, that the author has been disappointed by the recent public media cues, emanating from Russia, and this should be totally expectable and acceptable from any human; just as he goes on to say that as humans, mistakes will be made.

I’m not defending anybody, (least of all the author who knows how to defend himself), just trying to add some wider perspective to your perception of these articles, and this one in particular.

So, assuming that you are not a troll/shill, thanks for your comment, keep thinking.

Pantsir is a short-range system that I would call point-defense. A part of the system is simply cannon who can fire on incoming targets. The other weapon in the system are missiles that have a range of about 20km. The Pantsir is the sort of system you put someplace you want to defend, lets just use Damascus Intl Airport as a theoretical example, and then you can shoot down the incoming missiles and any planes foolish enough to fly that close.

The S-300 is more of an area-denial system. I see ranges of 100km to 200km listed in Wikipedia. It can shoot down incoming missiles, but bigger difference in Syria would be the ability to engage planes over these longer distances.

I suspect that this latter aspect is what most people who would like to see S-300’s in Syria are thinking of. The ability to force the Israeli air force to stay out of Syria, and to increase the probabilities of shooting down Israeli planes should they mount an incursion.

Notice that the Israelis and Americans both now seem very careful to keep their planes away from the corner of Syria where Russia does have S-300 and the improved S-400 version in place to protect their airbase and port. And I suspect that the people who get tired of seeing Israeli planes bombing targets in Syria are wishing that Syria had a similar ability to force the Israeli’s to keep their distance.

And note, Russia never actually zig-zag’d on the S-300’s in Syria. FM Lavrov dropped a hint that this can be considered. But that’s typical for diplomats. They might mention an outcome the other side doesn’t want, and they do it simply to advance their position. The other item I remember was a SouthFront article saying the S-300’s were coming. SF often repeats other media stories, and this was most likely a leak (possibly planted), and again it could have the same effect of making an opponent consider unpleasant outcomes.

The one thing we do not know is what Israel gave to keep the S-300’s out of Syria. I suspect that the Russians had something in mind all along. Russia does not seem like the sort of nation to give up something for nothing. But, no one over there tweets out every thought on foreign policy. So we just don’t know. One thing we do know is that Israel seemed on the verge of starting a large regional war, but now seems to have pulled back and are now back to torturing and killing their prisoners in Gaza. And that is doing Israel’s overall position in the world no good at all.

I acknowledge your differentiation between the weapons systems, as many of the community know this to be the case.

As for whether this has been, is currently, will be S-300 deliveries to Syria, they could already have S-400 systems for all we know; it is almost certain that they have a certain number of S-300 systems already but require Russian approval to use.
In other words, I am quite certain that I, and most other people, do not know what the current and future status of S-300 systems in Syrian control is/will be.

As for, what did Putin get?
Someone mentioned it, and I think it could be right, the football world cup in Russia not getting messed with by… some party, ostensibly some … well, the usual suspects… (but probably not ultimately the ostensible, media narrative darling for such things, suspects at all)

I’m on the same line as Tom put it. Your article is a very good one, you did not deluded yourself, being a realist as you are, as you have been, therefore I and many here enjoy this blog and your writings in particular.

“This is the fourth such unbearable article and i think you really should do something about it, i mean really! Give at least VVP more credit for his achievements where it’s due, and while doing so do you really think that he is planning to top off his career and life work by giving in to the anglo-zionists? Meh, you’r supposed to be the one with faith.”

good comment I think…in that it warrants we give Putin his due. Putin surely as done for Russia a good job over his years as leader..pulled Russia back from the brink induced by his most recent 2 predecessors. but Putin’s outlook and a certain class of his actions all along, in tandem with the formulation of his most recent cabinet have made him look suspect..as if his outlook on life, his sympathy and intent is more consistent with the western way of life..not really Russian independence and wherever that might lead, driven entirely by Russian national interest

that view seems so strong in Putin it is my view that is has weakened Russia, wasted lots of opportunities to bring to a positive end all that Putin took on for Russia..especially outside of Russia..Russian foreign policy. Putin has allowed the empire to go way too far without opposition, allowed the Syrian insurgency to go on when he could have destroyed it quickly, leaving vacuum that has now been filled by American/French/UK occupation of a large part of Syria. this of course is far greater destructive potential for all parties involved and for the world

Seems to me Putin is riding a western horse at the same time he must ride a Russian horse..alone.

Putin also appears to have taken on, and is carrying a responsibility for the white, christian, race and its global welfare, which also weakens him in the face of the Jewish dominated west…converted Khazars, who along with the western white elites shoulder no such responsibility. these are ‘Jewish’ period in the case of the Zionists.. and class based and concerned with. these kill ordinary white people as fulsomely as the kill people of color in the world. I do not see that there is any plan in the west that includes a positive future for ordinary white people. if there were such plans perhaps ordinary white western people would not be fed GMO with little alternative for proper nutrition

the fact is..the Zionist interest in the world is destructive of every and all other national and popular interest in existence. period! there is no room in existence for the Zionist interest and movement in existence. for the rest of humanity to live, to survive and evolve properly Zionism must die.

that’s it! so what the hell is Putin playing around with? that is the point! in fact to carry out and protect protect the white christian interest he must bell..or help mightily to bell.. the Zionist interest period. the Zionist interest threatens the human species itself..all of us. to tarry with it as Putin does is suicidal for Russia as well. in that Putin is most dangerous. he does not have to sell out as such simply to give Zionism the room and succor has given it…like atrociously making it impossible or as difficult in Russia to critique Jewish/Zionist behavior, its presentation of its own history that lots of scholarship has much trouble with, lots of questions about?

what the hell is that then. no one is above criticism..no people, no nation..nothing at all. why has Putin allowed such to become law in Russia? I dont believe the Russian people are happy with that.

I an person of color who grew up in a far and minor location of the world. yet as a boy back a long time ago I developed by reading a lot a great appreciation of the Russian people. I knew of Alexander Pushkin as a boy..’the Negro of Peter the Great’. I searched for and read the best I could an english translation of ‘Eugene Onegin’

I was stunned and impressed by the Russian revolution and what the Russian people achieved between 1917 and 1953 when Russia achieved the Atomic bomb and parity with the west..a mere 36 years

that was a stunning achievement, with no equal in human history until the start of the rise of the Chinese in 1948.

there is no human equal to those 2 achievements the Russian and Chinese, except the work of the Ancient Africans that culminated in the monumental reality of ancient Kemet {Egypt}.

the Russian people are among the very greatest of all humanity by achievement and existence, having survived and thrived facing the most trying of all experiences, extraordinary challenges to the Russian existence.

when I see Putin currently he comes up short of what I consider to be Russian: not clear headed and comprehensive intellectually , seeing reality fully, not responding in ways that end challenges but prolong them unnecessarily. not moving on the totality of situations..too taken up with the Jews-Russian and Israeli… allowing them and their JEWISH concerns to derail what ought to be Putin’s concerns. Jewish/Zionist concerns cannot possibly contain room for an independent Russian patrimony, outside of their control and domination. similarly there is no room therein for white freedom and positive evolution. in this way Putin does not serve well.

I have been looking at Russia to see where the opposition will come from..the men and women who see the world in a clear light than Putin, who will replace him and lead, purge the Russian anti-nationalist and move forward in more inclusion for the Russian people and a wider scope or perspective of leadership

I am with you on this. I am an intermittent reader of the Saker, and it feels like he has lost his wits a bit, expecting more than is reasonable of Putin/Russia and for things to move quickly when they absolutely need to go slow and steady.

Medvedev hair rending makes no sense to me. He has not stood in the way in Syria and Ukraine so far. Does the Saker suggest that ripping it up like trump would be a good idea, plus the guaranteed infighting? Perhaps Shoygu and Lavrov asked to retire. They have done some heavy lifting. Perhaps their replacements have been well lined up. Perhaps they are better still. Perhaps Putin wants good men well settled in before he goes.

Russia is winning by being steady, reliable and consistent. Putin is winning the eyes of Europe by not attempting to make a regime out of a democracy. Putin is winning over the 5th column in Russia by making it clear to them that the trajectory he proposed is winning out, and their clout and connections are strengthening everywhere as the US flaps and fails. Even 5th columnists must be aware that they are being backed by a losing force. What more could the 5th column want, in any case, that to start internal discontent and power struggle.

Who cares about Israel? The whole world is watching them put their head in a noose for the umpteenth time in their history. I believe Russia is allowing them to do that.

Iran? Do you seriously think Israel is going to try that? The methodology of US/Israeli intervention have been laid so firmly in the eyes of Europe and the west that such an attack would be savagely condemned everywhere. FFS, even the recent pot shots at Syria had every opposition party in Europe rolling their eyes in disbelief and calling foul.

Right now Russia needs a slow hand and to let the men they have tripped fall under their own weight. It needs to gracefully court the US-disillusioned Europeans with a not perfect but well oiled machine, not while also trying to settle an internal ruckus.

To me, the re-appointment of Medvedev and all the rest of the anxieties listed above suggest that Russia’s top command thinks it is further ahead and the US-Israel is failing faster than the Saker does.

thanks ‘Mikhas’ for this comment to a truly depressing article I do not know enough about Russia – but I do know a thing or two about people, good and bad… And Putin is one of the good ones, one of the best ones.

Putin can afford to humor Netanyahu just as he can afford to call the US “partners” and not respond to various sanctions. The big picture is that both Israel and the US are collapsing due to their own internal contradictions, imperial over-reach, betrayal of their allies, and actions that show even their allies that they are untrustworthy hypocrites. I could cite examples of each of these, but we have enough prominent and current examples that I believe you can fill in the blanks. Consequently, as in Judo, it is best to not only use your opponent’s energy to defeat them but to get out of the way of those who are defeating themselves. Also, in Judo you are taught to teach your partner how to defeat you next time. Perhaps this has something to do with Putin’s behavioral contradictions. Is Putin playing the gracious patsy to Netanyahu because he has the self-assurance and position that allows him to? What must Putin be thinking about the self-imposed damage to its interests Israel is committing in its current policy toward Gaza protestors? Collapse is coming very quickly for both Israel and the US. We will see what these events do for BDS. It is also looking increasingly likely that the European poodles may stop trading with Iran in petrodollars and instead switch to Euros. Perhaps they will figure out some way to shield their companies from threatened sanctions. Which is more important for Putin, defeating Israeli air power in Syria or a split in the Atlantic alliance? This is the second time in one month Merkel is pilgrimaging to Putin to petition him. As Merkel goes, so goes the EU. There is no doubt she hates Trump, but will her policies change? We shall soon find out. All of this overshadows Syria and Israel. Putin is in a position where less action is more, as is Iran. Therefore passivity, and even ambiguity, can lead to mistakes from which one learns, but which do not have major destructive consequences.

I think we should be careful when speaking of collapsing Empires. Empires collapse when the internal pressure combined with external pressure exceeds the fatigue limit of the political or economical structure of the Empire. But this is a very slow process.

Yes, there are signs that the dollar economy is weakening, 20.000 billion USD in debt is the most conspicuous, a decline in industrial production is another, but they may very well survive on their “financial industry” and “quantum eases” for decades.

Politically, there are also signs of weakening; USA is growing more and more polarized. This is usually also a sign of decline or collapse. But from what we have seen happened to Trump, the ruling elite may lose the election, but win the political game. Trump is now doing their bidding, and there are reasons to think that the ruling elite will be able to do the same in the years to come. Who believe that it would be possible to rally the “basket of deplorables” again, not when they know that it changes nothing? And when the ruling elite have understood that there are people who will stand up to them, surly they will respond one way or another. It is reasonable to believe that their responds will tip the balance in their direction at least for the duration of the next presidency. Which means that a political movement that are opposing the elite will not be in power until earliest the 47th president of USA, 10 years from now. And we should expect oscillations between the elite and a popular opposition for several electoral cycles. Do not expect an imminent political collapse either.

I do not think that even a financial catastrophe will topple the ruling elite. A few banks went bankrupt in 2008, but the ruling elite have actually managed to graft more of the economy since then. Which means that the elite has been strengthened, not weakened, relative to the commons. And let us not hope for a financial crisis that wipes out the elite, because it will drag us down with them; it is possible that we go down first, actually. And with us I mean everyone, including Russia. If not, I will attribute that to divine intervention.

And finally, US’ armed forces are the strongest in the world. They are still the sole super-power, and what we see today is the emergence of an opposition to their hegemony. Before this opposition matures, the opposition needs to increase their ability to project power, not by percentages, but by multiples. They do not have an economic foundation to do that. USA can cut “defence” spending by half and by reorganize the structure, audit spending etc. and still increase their military power. Syria managed to use old AD systems and shoot down 70 or so cruise missiles; old hardware used in a competent may suffice. So USA will remain the strongest military power even if they stopped investing for a decade. But this will not happen because the MIC will see their profit disappear. So there is absolute no reason to think that US power will decline and that the Empire collapses because of a weakening of the military power.

So we should not let hopes of an imminent collapse of the Empire lull us into a false sense of coming salvation. Dig in. Prepare for å long fight. And our enemies lose if we survive. We do not win by merely surviving, but the Empire loses. And that may be an important contribution in toppling the Empire when that time comes.

Without any exaggeration the brilliance of The Saker continue to radiate with every write up he produces and this one to me stand out as one of his best.

What makes this truly exceptional is that for a long time someone as actually talked about solutions not just the problems, problems and problems. And you cannot ignore his deep seated objectivity to accept that a group or a small nation have been able to defined what they stand for and stood by it in spite of their relative weakness and threat of genocidal war from the AngloZionist empire, that the Russia Federation should emulate such – though not parrot-like which he made clear.

Obviously humanity’s salvation lies in going back to our spiritual root. Thanks for this wonderful piece The Saker.

I’ve been spending a lot of time trying to figure out “The Controversy of Z…“, and the relationship of the worldwide virtual nation, self-identifying as “jewry“, as a result of many insightful and, to say the least, counter to current Orwellian-like political correctness/censorship standards, which led to my reading, intensely, the above referred to book by Douglas Reed.

You refer to the delineation between the political and the personal:“…This is why you can often meet the following Russian type: they will bitch and complain about all the Jewish “crooks and politicians”, but have “good” Jews as their closest and best friends. This is not blindness at all, this is the expression of the fact that to loathe an ideology is one thing, but to collectively feel hostility towards a group of people you know very well is a completely different proposition. …”

I am not so sure.
Above and beyond the (seemingly) endless list of exceptions that this aggressive global collective get, i.e. even in Russia, publishing any criticism of Israel/jews is career limiting, (of course, from the view of the trenches under the auspiciousness of the empire it is so extreme, it is beyond ridiculous), we, of the perhaps somewhat freer minds, observe the overt manifestation of rapid approach to global annihilation over the same time period as the establishment and achievement of regional bully of the occupational administration in Palestinian lands, which refers to itself as Israel.
This is difficult to imagine as co-incidence.

Here’s the point, we can observe, very systemically, that this cult of Torah-Pharisees-Talmud ideological worshipnegatively sum gain games everything, but especially individual, personal good will!

I have no doubt that there are truly good people who self-identify with this extremist cult, but, they either a.couldn’t know they are implicitly (and otherwise) supporting, thus profoundly lack responsibility for their personal actions, or b. know what they are doing, and are aligned to it, in which case, I say, that is not good.

So here’s the nub of it, by acceptance of association, i.e. self-identifying with the group, there is necessarily an acceptance of the value proposition offered by it.
Without going into too many details, the value proposition makes/internalizes the ideology, thus making it personal in return for (what appears to be) systems to enable better material value standards and social recognition standards in societies; part of the exchange includes, doing the right thing for the group, when called upon, or, automatically, i.e. giving preferential treatment to a candidate for a employment position, if one were to be a human resources operative at a company, or never criticizing Israel if one were enabled to a prime journalistic position, etc…

You see, the key attribute, based on a platform of acceptance of discrimination, based on the underlying assumption of entitlement, is the acceptance of the value proposition of the group (the Torah-Pharisees-Talmud collective).
One may see someone as good at a personal level, but when push comes to shove, anyone who has accepted the value-proposition, i.e. self-identifies with the group, has the embedded necessary ideology/values of superiority/exceptionalism, and discrimination.

So, ultimately, how do you discern between the hysterically anti-social and dysfunctional ideology, from the apparently good individual?

Why the coyness about Reed’s book, The Controversy of Zion X? There’s no need for it here :D
It’s a good, erm, read (no pun intended) though somewhat heavy going (at least for me) not least because of Reed’s use of archaic words. A good English dictionary might be handy.

So, ultimately, how do you discern between the hysterically anti-social and dysfunctional ideology, from the apparently good individual?

Not sure if this answers your question sufficiently but I believe in the innate goodness of people. So the answer’s quite simple: assume the individual’s good and doesn’t hold to the ideology, until he proves himself otherwise.

I have, for my whole life, up until recently, followed your approach, “… believe in the innate goodness of people. So the answer’s quite simple: assume the individual’s good and doesn’t hold to the ideology, until he proves himself otherwise.”

But… it doesn’t work.
If one doesn’t prostitute oneself to ridiculous daily humiliations, the goy’s burden, and submit to slavery, the ever decreasing tolerance for insufficient homage will result in measures to restrict one’s personal freedoms and prospects.
One might never be allowed to speak freely in a factual manner about an ever-increasing range of subjects-of-interest to them!

I was honestly too naive to know the extent of public subservience necessary…
…and am paying the price.

To try again, what I am trying to say in my comment is, if someone accepts the value proposition, which is tantamount (for accepted peoples), to self-identifying, (even if secretly some or even most of the time),, one is accepting of:
a. at least tacit in-group recognition of the priority/specialness of in-group/collective members
b. fundamental discrimination against out-group peoples, the vast majority of humanity, and to a greater or lesser extent, and demonstratable willing to actually discriminate

a. and b. are not okay with me.
That is “gaming at a very fundamental level, and will lead to only two eventual outcomes:1. the slavery of humanity2. the breakdown of society, as we know it, as everybody else, slowly adopts these traits

It is not acceptable.

So the question, how do you ascertain whether a Torah-Pharisees-Talmud ideology cult collective member is ‘good’ or not, when they have accepted these values?

To bring it back to the article, and Russian politics, an even brief survey, if objective, of the (more) objective historical evidence, suggests that dealing with the collective, any individual who is an admitted affiliate, brings much larger risks, and likelihood of bad faith, from their side.

The country referred to as Israel is just a base of operations for what is in effect, a virtual nation ensconced around the globe, and just a part of their capability of suasion, again, suasion for achieving the subordination of humanity, which is fundamental for any individual who is self-identifying with that group!

Lest we not forget that it was worldwide “Jewry” which declared war on Germany in 1933, and successfully implemented an embargo on Germany, which took a great toll on the German people, and in a place which lead all other countries in raising the prospects for German jews and integrating them into society, those German jews were not so affected by the embargo, having already achieved a higher than average financial security.

The coyness, I’m trying to explore ways of not tripping up on the terms invented by the Torah-Pharisees-Talmud adherents, specifically to intimidate the gentiles, i.e. “jew“, and “anti-semite“.
Any time you write one of these terms online, a threshold in security surveillance is tripped, placing the offending writer on a higher monitoring intensity, including any writing done here.

I agree that the read of “The Controversy…” was a little challenging, but I believe it was a style and lexicon much more normal in the day. It was though, one of the most invaluable efforts I have spent.

however…we are not playing with children and toys here: ‘innocent until proven guilty’ is a gap too wide in this issue. time is crucial and to voluntarily offer up that time on dubious philosophical/judicial principle, could be suicidal

‘Guilty until proven innocent’ seems the way forward to me. put the time gap on your side..after all you are killing no one in the interim I dont think..just being super watchful, tactically sharpening up your normal readiness, defenses and responses in light of the situation.

those who are are ‘hysterically anti-social and dysfunctional’ are indeed forever on the ball, no gaps..manipulating national politics,internal and global economics etc….indeed killing people…lots and lots of people all the time…..

what innate good do you mean…some 1 to 1 and half % of the people..needle and haystack situation?

However, I am fully of the opinion that the survival of civilization, as we know it, is dependent on full disclosure of the facts that have been actively repressed and/or otherwise otherwise disempowered/deflected, concerning the history, (totally well documented) objectives and methods of the international semi-secret collective adherents of the Torah-Pharisees-Talmud ideology.
I believe this fundamentally extremist world-view to systematically negatively-sum-gain game the systems of the planet, by extreme Chauvinistic discrimination against the massive majority out-groups, at the same time, by way of effective control of the media, whine and complain literally incessantly about their own victimhood by discrimination.

The only ones who ever really kept the jews in captivity, have been, and continue to be the jews!

So, as a first step, more widely spread fact-based education of everyone, jews and otherwise humanity; so that a consensus may be reached about the long term viability of allowing this kind of ideology to remain legal, in the context of the survival of humanity and emancipation.

The more people who know the facts, the more jews will renounce this anti-social ideological affiliation, and the more of humanity will increase political pressure for some kind of re-balancing of the equation.

Recommend for everybody, Douglas Reed’s “Controversy of Zion“, available online by stealth search engines; do the best you can to remain anonymous, for they are doubtlessly taking note of who accesses this material.

Wonderful thoughtful comments above, one and all. I to have read the Reed Book and found it most enlightening, and as it fits the Truth, censored so completely out of the equation.

I also have come to believe in the innate goodness of humanity … but that innateness is only down deep in our core and thus overridden by the fears perpetrated upon us by those who would take (and are effectively doing their best at) down the path to our own destruction … here on earth greed of the psychopath rules.

Humanity will only change individual by individual and must not be expected to improve “overnight” … our reality, the True Reality, continues over many individual lifetimes so we can only be expected to do our best while we are here and let Karma dictate the endings. To each their own, each will receive that which they deserve and many in this lifetime are receiving that which they have already earned.

Thus it is my view that violence begets violence … but … violence only falls upon those who deserve it, considering the larger time perspective of eternity. Therefore, wisely, and with caution, be not afraid to confront your oppressors with that which they fear the most, after-all, they well deserve it.

Truth wills out, and that will be found to be that which sets s free, individually at first but eventually collectively. Ultimately, Truth is the Love of GOD (not God nor gods). Our greatest problem is that of not being able to recognize the GOD withIN, our very Soul. World Religions (corrupted to the core for the most part) see to it that we are diverted down other Institutionalized paths … meanwhile, those writing here are surely on the higher road.

The internal political contradictions with Russia, particularly in regard to the role of Medvedev, and his banking connections in Russia and abroad are obviously a significant factor.

I too think we should not overlook – look more closely – at the role of Europe in the equation. The internal contradictions within the European communities, with their complexity, paradoxes of deep economic, political and identity crisis, intense self-interest and conflicting relationships between each other, Britain and the United States; their traditional rivalry for dominance in the Middle East and responsibility for the creation of the State of Israel. While at the same time contemplating the prospect of a misjudged bridge too far, through their complicity of a nuclear confrontation, in a system that ironically says it must go on, go on, expand or die.

Saker thinks deeply and rationally; but acknowledges each of us brings a little experience (some more than others) to the perspective of uncertainty. There is no absolute surety, as everything is in a dialectic process of constant motion, change and development and always interacting upon itself and and outcomes other than predicted.

I never really understood the concept of “Keep your enemies closer.” I mean, if you have your enemy close, then he’s near enough for you to stick a knife (political or otherwise) in his ribs and be done with him. You don’t need to expend energy and resources on keeping an eye on him, you don’t have to worry about getting distracted and having him attack you, etc., etc.

Antoinetta III

PS: To the Saker or Mods:

Is there any way to have the site “remember” my name and E-Mail info so I don’t have to type them in every time I submit something? Thanx.

Sometimes ‘sticking a knife in his ribs and be done with him’ is a strategy that might well (probably will!) have unintended consequences. Figuratively speaking, ‘killing off’ Medvedev and his cronies, might well set them free to cause many other serious problems for Putin and Russia that they would have less chances of doing when under a short leash in Putin’s government.

The thing about prayers is that sometimes they are answered in ways we might regret.

I suspect it may depend your browser.
I use Yandex, and my name and email are remembered on The Saker.
I just type “I” and my name comes up in a drop box, same with my email.
Try to change the browser to see if you can get something more helpful.

This is a wordpress site using the standard w/press comment facility.
The webmaster should be able to set up permission for commenters to log in – that would mean their log-in info would auto-attack to their comments as long as they remain logged in.

The other things that is not often talked about, is the upcoming 2018 world cup. I have a strong feeling that lots of deals were made to keep MOSSAD dogs away from causing troubles in Russia during these games. Lots of thing will take place at the end of summer 2018.

“Considering how different the tone of much of the Russian Internet is, the only explanation I have for this situation is that any public anti-Israeli or anti-Zionist statements are career-terminators in Russia (we also clearly see the same phenomenon at work with RT and Sputnik)”.

If so, isn’t it worth thinking carefully about how and why that can happen? The standard criticism of Zionism, and the analogous criticism of Jewish people in general, includes the idea that Jews exert far more power and influence than can be explained by their numbers, their persuasiveness, or even their wealth.

Such suggestions always meet with accusations of “anti-semitism” and “racism”. But either they are true or they are not.

If they are not true, how come “any public anti-Israeli or anti-Zionist statements are career-terminators”? What is the mechanism? Who, exactly, does what to end those careers?

I might add that every time a career is ended for those reasons, those responsible justify the victimized journalists and prove them right. (Imagine a giant bully shouting, “I am NOT violent! Take that, and that, and that!”)

Whatever else happens, I hope the Russians have explained, in clear and simple language, to President al-Assad himself, that they do not manufacture Pantsirs and give them to Syria to see them destroyed while their crews smoke idly outside. (Unless of course it was a rubber Pantsir, in which case great job to everyone concerned – and yah boo sucks to the Israelis).

I have seen articles saying that, for instance, it is too much to expect crews to be on alert all the time. Well, duh. Obviously! That just means they need more trained crews, and to ensure that they are never on duty so long that they tired or inattentive. And the units should be concealed, or moved around.

If this incident was due to carelessness, someone should be severely punished. (I am thinking of loss of rank and possible dismissal, not execution or prison).

Has this incident been confirmed by the SAA? It would seem on the face of it very careless behaviour by the Pantsir crew – unexpectedly so. On the other hand, how hard exactly would it be for the Israelis to fake up a cardboard Pantsir and film its destruction? I would suggest not hard at all. (And they seem to treat such things as jokes).

Exactly my thoughts! The smoking crew should indeed be made an example and punished properly. The worst part of their mistake is why didn’t they switch on their Pantsir in autonomous auto-defense mode first and then go take a smoke?

Exactly. The commander (a Colonel) died on the spot, his co-pilot (1st Ltn) later in Hospital.

Reports are that the Pantsir was defenseless for having fired anything in its sleeves. it had shut its radars off in order not to be tracked by Israeli ELINT, had moved away from its firing spot and was waiting for a support vehicle that would have had to replenish it.
Unfortunately it had previously been tracked (while active the Pantsir is trackable but can shot down anything coming). By its shutting down of the radars, the enemy can assume it’s out of ammos. A drone was sent in to visually [that’s why we have a video] patrol the nearby of last known position and unfortunately found the Pantsir.

Should the SAA have “two of each”, Pantsirs could line up in pairs and a fully loaded one would kick in and protect its sibling during reloading. Yet, in the heat of an attack any sort of shit happens. And anyway, SAA *doesn’t* have two of each (as Saker pointed out).

Now go on trying to crucify the sleazy Arabs for the inexistent crime of smoking a sigarette in a forced pause of the action.
Or, just make up some other imaginary misbehavior along the lines of “they had to keep running circles in the wait”. Or whatever hard-earned-Call of Duty-experienced, shrewd move those fallen brave men failed to perform.
Then search for their names in the socials and write to their widows and orphans (most probably parents, for the Lieutenant) about what kind of losers their beloved had been in life.

Well, this article by The Saker is a contrast to the article written by Alexander Khaldey on 13 May 2018. Everything seems to revolve around Medvedev. People forget that Medvedev is the Chairman of the United Russia political party and that the Duma picks a new Prime Minister based on received recommendations. Medvedevs party has the largest number of MP’s in the Duma. Had Putin proposed somebody else, would that person had been accepted ? How would have MP’s from the United Russia party reacted ? I think that Putin had no choice but to propose Medvedev, with whom he cooperated for years.

On the other hand, as Alexander Khaldey has stated, the oligarchs around Medvedev have been removed, and there was no rejoicing in the West, which understood what happened. This made Putin’s position stronger. I am sorry to have to say it, but on this occasion I have to accept Alexander Khaldey’s interpretation of events, as too much importance has been given to the liberals in Russia who, as far as I can see, have more propaganda than real power. For example, prior to the presidential elections, the Russian Communist Party, for some strange reason, nominated Pavel Grudinin as their presidential candidate. Grudinin is a businessman of questionable integrity, being accused of having five Swiss bank accounts. The liberal media in Russia started issuing absurd analysis, stating that Grudinin enjoyed the “support” of between 30 % and 80 % of Russian voters. This nonsense was picked up by the well known analyst Israel Shamir, who repeated it in an article at the beginning of this year, adding that Grudinin’s “popularity” was negated by the Russian media. Obviously disinformation, as Grudinin received only 12 % of the vote.

As for Bibi Netanyahu and his attendance at the Victory Parade, I have to admit that I was surprised by his visit. Iran and Syria were obviously discussed. However, it might have been prudent if Putin conveyed Russia’s stand through normal diplomatic channels instead of inviting him. On the other hand, people forget that Putin also invited Serbia’s President Alexander Vuchich to the Victory Parade, a clear message to NATO that Russia will not tolerate another NATO attack against Serbia, like the one in 1999. And yes, The Saker is correct. Of all Orthodox people, the Serbs are the only ones the Russian fully like and trust. In fact there are many Ukrainians and Russians of Serbian origin, especially in the Donbas. In the late 17th century many Serbs emigrated to Russia due to the Turkish occupation. At the Battle of Borodino in 1812, you had Russian Russian generals of Serbian origin commanding, like general Miloradovich.

As far as Syria goes, no, Russia will not give up on it. It has a Naval base, as well as an Air Force base inside the country. And yes, The Saker is correct as far as the S-300 and S-400 not being used in Syria. There was no need for the Russians to use them. These are expensive missiles designed primarily against high flying aircraft, and using them against basically obsolete Tomahawk cruise missiles would have been an extravagant waste. People have written that Syria used old Soviet missile systems against attacks made by the US, UK, France and Israel. Not true. Syria has the deadly Pantsir missile system, designed specifically against cruise missiles and aircraft flying at low level and mid level. The Pantsirs performance in Syria was impressive. The Syrians used them in conjunction with upgraded Soviet missile systems. It is true that the Syrians did not shoot down all the cruise missiles. However, it is true that soon after the attack by the US, UK and France, Russia sent merchant ships to Syria, loaded with additional high tech, including Pantsirs, beefing up Syria’s defense capabilities.

I think that we can conclude that Putin knows what he is doing, although it could be argued that inviting Bibi Netanyahu was – perhaps – his only political mistake. Then again, I could be wrong, as none of us know all the details of the visit.

I trust The Saker will forgive me that on this occasion I have sided with Alexander Khaldey and his views.

Consider. We have almost a ‘feelgood’ message from Alexander Khaldey, He says all is good and there are no contradictions. What we have here from the Saker is the message that not only are there contractions that are nuanced, but he goes on to explain how these contradictions may play out in the larger geo-politics. It is a very different way of looking at things and personally I prefer the pragmatism of the Saker, because sure as there is the existence of little green apples, so is there the existence of nuanced contradictions.

amarynth
I take your point. However, why such obsession with Medvedev now and not before ? Even The Saker has stated last year that the power of the liberals in Russia is limited, as the same are made up of people who grew rich during the corruption of Yeltsins reign, something few Russians want a return to.

Yes, The Saker has a very broad mind, writing brilliant articles. However, his last two articles differ from his previous ones in their intonations. He has given more credence to Russian liberal Atlantists than is necessary. Since last year analysts have been stating that it is only a matter of time before we get a rift between the US and EU elites, and we are already seeing the first evidence, Europe turning against the US as far as sanctions against Iran go. Merkel is again coming to Sochi to meet Putin, having seen him just a year ago. This says plenty. And the Atlantic powers ? Yes, Britain is at the moment backing the US. However, interests come first, and Britain will certainly turn away from the US in the end. Some years back, analysts were reporting that London and Moscow were conducting covert negotiations on future policies, including the BRICS. This says plenty. I think we can say that Putin knows what he is doing. He will be in charge for six years, and what do you think will happen in the next six years ? Plenty of changes in the world I expect.

Saker gives the impression he is disappointed that Putin did not take a stick to the Atlantists. But Putin has never shown signs of that for the reason that he wants to encourage, and has said so, the repatriation of roubles from the West. The apparent shift in direction of the new government can be seen as a carrot to these people – he’s saying bring your roubles back, and make money in Russian infrastructure.

How curiously convenient, then, that Trump, or more precisely the US Treasury Dept, has begun sanctioning Russian oligarchs doing business in US. Almost as if Trump is acting in consort by wielding the stick that corresponds to Putin’s carrot.

But did really Putin ‘invited’ Bibi? He was the one soliciting for the nth time a meeting with Putin. It looks rather that by participating in the Immortal march, Bibi was the one currying favors with Putin.
On the other hand all that hand wringing about ‘Atlanticists’ vs “Eurasianists’ shows that Russians still did not get over the ‘Westernizers’ vs ‘Slavophiles’ meme. Or over the idea that there is such thing as the ‘Russian Messianism’ (which is a Western projection).

Now Oil is soon going to be $100 barrel, then it will only be a matter of time until $150, after all India, China and Africa are growing and will always need an increasing amout of Oil, Gas, Metals and Minerals, and since Russia is a major producer of these it stands to gain very well. The World Cup is a risk to Russia as it gives the enemies a perfect stage for provocations and terror attacks. Plus the whole ‘football culture’ is not something that is beneficial to Russian society as a whole.

I agree that the World Cup preparations and competitions may make for a risky two months, and may be a factor in Putin’s recent decisions and negotiations. Considering past history of using the Olympics as a means to demonize or sabotage Russia, I have been wondering for the last year when and what plan will be implemented for the World Cup. It would be a nightmare for many if Russia succeeds with a great international event, and I would be surprised if attempts are not made to sabotage it. I would think Putin is working to keep things on an even keel during this time considering the vulnerability the W.C. presents.

Did Trump’s game of nuclear chicken actually work? Russia has given Syria considerable help, but risking a nuclear war is a tall order. In the last crisis, Russia was trapped in a situation that could have led to such a war. The Russians could not really publicly back out of that imbroglio if they were so inclined; they may be trying to reduce the risk of such a predicament in the future. All of this is pure speculation. There is much we don’t know about the discussions occurring behind the scenes.

“Russia, as whole, has yet to define what “Russian values” really are.”

This isn’t completely true; Putin has spoken repeatedly about the need for international law and multilateralism.

Yet those are “World values”. I think Saker means Russian civilizational values. Such as faith,home,family,simply what does it mean to be Russian.The West seems intent on destroying and rebuilding their nations in a common “liberal” mixture. A “one size fits all”,eliminating all national cultures.And those countries adopting a US model of what it means to be a modern society.As he said its not enough to be against something.You must be “for” something as well.

In the US as an example.I believe that Trump won against Clinton because he offered an alternate vision.Flawed as it was/is,he at least had a vision.While Clinton offered people more of the same policies that over the decades had alienated so many people.Of course he lied and people are seeing that now.But that doesn’t change the fact that in 2016 it helped give him victory.

Neither Trump nor Clinton was popular; they might be the most unpopular candidates ever and neither has much legitimacy. Values can mean different things but the question of whether a society is one of laws and multilateralism versus rule of the strong and empire is important. The U.S. used to distinguish itself as a nation of laws– up to a point, but that is no longer true. It doesn’t get talked about much, perhaps because there are so many problems everywhere these days. We have rulers that don’t think they need to learn any lessons from history or anything else. So we are re-learning all the lessons the hard way. Why is torture bad? Why is a police state a bad idea? Why is privacy important? Why is a political system based on bribery bad? And so on. I think Americans used to have a vague sense that their culture is better then others and you still see that reflected in T.V. shows. i don’t think Americans have enough awareness of other cultures to care much about them. The rhetoric justifying regime change can take the form of “spreading democracy” but that is propaganda.

Fascinating stuff, my friend. I agree with all of it, especially towards the end. When you start talking about how Russia must take a spiritual stance, and how our support should be conditional. I feel this way not only towards Russia, but every single country out there, including Iran, and Hizbullah. Truth is our life is a struggle between good, and evil. One can be good one day, and bad the next day, just the way things work in this realm. This extends to even countries, because a country is just an entity made up of people. I hope for the sake of the Russian people they are able to overcome the Zionist influence within Russia. Everywhere this disease spreads just brings, death, plunder, humiliation, and subservience to a clique of humans, who hardly resemble humans. If you think about it, the Zionist cabals main aim is a war against spirituality. Its true spirituality that exposes these demons for what they are. Their empire is built on greed, and lust. Their head only operates based on materialism and sensualism. If enough people were actually truly spiritual, spoke up against these unjust oppressors, their entire fickle empire will come crashing down in an instant. We cant let these demons put a price on us. Losing ones soul does not have a price tag on it. I hope God gives good, to all the good people of the world, and may He humiliate all the evil, unjust, Tyrants and their stooges.

It’s the journalists who claim that Russia refused to deiver the S-300 to Syra. So far I haven’t seen any such statement from Kozhin and I fail to see Netanyahu’s leverage against Russia to get such a concession. Lets look at what Kozhin really said:
—begin quote —-https://in.reuters.com/article/mideast-crisis-syria-russia/russia-after-netanyahu-visit-backs-off-syria-s-300-missile-supplies-idINKBN1IC0U1
“For now, we’re not talking about any deliveries of new modern (air defence) systems,” Izvestia cited Kozhin as saying when asked about the possibility of supplying Syria with S-300s. [ even if the S-300 or S-400 was already there, dormant, with a trained syrian crew, Kozhin wouldn’t lie here because a new modern system could be an S-500]
The Syrian military already had “everything it needed,” Kozhin added. [does it mean that the S-300 isn’t there under russian control at least? not necessarely]
The Kremlin played down the idea that it had performed a U-turn on the missile question or that any decision was linked to Netanyahu’s visit.
“Deliveries (of the S-300s) were never announced as such,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call, when asked about the matter. [He used the past tense, not the future, which could also mean that if the system was delivered, to be revealed only in case of full scale war]
“But we did say after the (Western) strikes (on Syria) that of course Russia reserved the right to do anything it considered necessary.”
———– en quote ————–

You can use the same exact statements from Kozhin and reach a totally different conclusion. Again, which kind of keverage Netanyahu had against Putin? I don’t think he had any. Kozhin statements are useless to know if Syria has or hasn’t the s-300

Alongside the recent international and Russian incidents and twists and turns, there are many basic positive trends for Russia. For example, the Russian vulnerability to subterfuge from foreign agent NGOs has been reduced; Russian agriculture has made great recent advances in quality, quantity and diversity; Russia’s military competence, equipment and weapons have all been greatly improved; Russia’s basic financial situation re national debt is the envy of the planet; Russian vulnerabilities to Western financial pressures and subterfuge has been reduced; Russia and Putin have gained respect around the Earth, despite the enormous demonization propaganda. Putin has mused about the need to find ways and means to reduce the influence and power of the US dollar, an intention which poses a fundamental challenge to the Empire.

Meanwhile, outside of Russia, as examples, the anti-Russia hysteria in the United States has fizzled and the British anti-Russia hysteria has a crazed pathetic flavour. Turkey is just barely attached to NATO, Europe is increasingly disatisfied to be a US lapdog.

So perhaps Putin’s calculations are that largely ‘staying the course’, with initiatives like increased emphasis on friendly with Europe, offers more benefit and less of a downside than the uncertainties that more radical reforms at this time would entail?

There is the weird mass media and western political mainstream context that Russia operates within, whereby Russia is of late always the target for lies and hostility. And yet, for example, notable and earning points for Russia inside and outside of Russia was Russia’s calm demeanour in the face of an insanity-tinged Skripal false flag. After the smoke cleared, where several countries like marionettes immediately expelled Russians as ‘punishment’ because Mrs. May had immediately fabricated absurdities that pronounced Russia guilty, Russia looked like the only sane adult in the room.

Events of 20th and 21st Century are not understandable without knowedge about Khazaria Empire.
If good analyst look on map of Khazaria Empire, within one minute understand, why Russian administrative has warm relations with so called “Israel”.

A) Words “Jew/Jews” was invented in 18th Century. Since then Khazars use this new artificial word.

C) 91% of so-called “Jews” are people of Khazarian origin (European faces, pale skin, no Semitic DNA, half DNA similar to Kurds, Slavic, Mongolian (high percentage of Khazars have European faces and Mongolian eyes. Rest 9% are Sephardim – real descendants of real Hebrews. Their DNA is the same as DNA of Palestinians.

Zionists was never capable to illuminate why milions of supposed Hebrews walk into land of Khazaria exactly one minute after all Khazarian folks “vanished”. Zionist concept is: Khazarian folks “vanished” even with their religion (Judaism after conversion from religion of adoring Phallus) and millions “real Hebrews” walk into Khazaria and their skin after years was whitewashed and no one know Hebrew language, although religion not forgotten.

Conclusion: Khazar folks have no right to murder Semitic folks in Palestine (Palestinians are Semitic), and have no right to stole land and water.

Zionism is brutal murderous scam of last 2 Centuries.

Is there way to stop this nightmare ? Yes. Enough is: Call Khazars by their original name: Khazars.
After world understand this scam, Zionism collapse itself as Apartheid I. in South Africa (with help of worldwide boycott).

Khazars are specifically called ‘zhidove kozarstii’ in the first Russian Chronicle, who came to proselytize Prince Vladimir, who rejected them. The term ‘Jew’ was not invented in the 18th century, since Khazars used it since their conversion. They specifically named as their country “Jerusalem” wherefrom they have been expelled by God’s wrath ‘for their sins’ and the country handed over to Christians. Prince Vladimir rejected them arguing that he does not want Russians to lose their country by adopting a religion rejected by God.
Where they disappeared is still a much debated question (“Ukrainian” Cossacks claimed to be their descendants). Certainly they lurk beneath the surface, judging by the bouts of attempts to ‘Judaize’ the Church which gripped at times Russia (‘Judaizers’ proper at the end of 15th century, later on Raskolniks, Molokhans, Subbotniks and other sects).

Profoundly bewildering article, wandering through the forest looking for trees. As we each do, attempting to understand and predict things we do not know.

Putin and the Russian economy need FDI (Foreign Direct Investment). Development will not come from revenues and growth. Russia is about to slip back into recession.

Thus, Putin had to hold the Liberal faction to attract Western investment.
He hopes some billions from Arab nations will arrive.
He has sold minority shares in the natural resources sectors.
But he needs hundreds of billions of dollars.
UK controls the stolen funds of the oligarchs, and US sanctions makes investing in Russia a crap shoot instead of what analysts think is a great investment (if you can get around sanctions).

So, the reasons are economic for holding over the Medvedev government cadre.

As for a deal or understanding with Israel, there is not a scintilla of difference in Russian military acquiescence to IDF now than before the May parade and meetings with Bibi. Russia permits Iran and Syrian and Hezbollah targets to be hit if Russia knows the target and time of attack. During these attacks, Russia has aided Syria to defeat the missile attacks.

The attack using guided bombs were successful because the US shielded the nine bombs launch planes, basically suckering the Russians in a deconfliction agreement.

What does Russia get from working with the Israelis? They got a fourth DEZ in the southwest, Jordan and US and Israel and Russia agreed on the arrangement. This was big for the Syrians, big for successes elsewhere, and significant diplomatic success. It was the one sign of Detente of Sorts with Washington.

Russia’s military strategy has a huge portion of diplomacy within it. We see this in the DEZs, reconciliation and deconfliction arrangements. Russia has used Military Police to create social order in liberated areas. They have arranged over 2500 reconciliation agreements among Syrians with the government.

They intrinsically are protecting the integrity of the Syrian Republic as they provide safety for the people.
They will not allow a war to be fought within Syria against Assad or against Iran, unless Assad and/or Iran insist on fighting such a war. In that case, Russia will wait in the wings for that phase of insanity to end.
More probably, they would upend the Iranians in Syria, maybe even ditch Assad, if they do not “obey” Russian wishes.

Iran’s war of Resistance, if you pay attention, is fought with proxies in other people’s countries. Iraq, Syria, Yemen have suffered enormously because of this strategy. In Iraq’s most recent election, the anti-Iran Shia won. They want Iran to go back to Iran. (Despite the great Kirkuk victory over Barzani by General Soulemaini). Syria will have to demand the same.

Without Iranian targets in Syria, the Israelis will have nothing to strike with missiles or guided bombs.

The focus then will be the Golan. But first, Russia wants the political renewal process to be the center of national attention, not a war against the Empire. Astana is more important than Teheran.

The Resistance is incompatible with OBOR and BRI, EAEU and the New Silk Road.
It seems to me to be a fiction of bloggers and ideologues.
If the US felt there was a center of gravity of The Resistance, it would strike it massively.
The reality is the Hegemon is more active than ever to destroy Eurasia development and Multi-Polar rise of Russia and China.

Why would Russia want to fight a Resistance when its leverage now is based on brilliant development of weapons of offense and defense that negate the Hegemon’s military power projection. That’s the real Resistance! The petro-yuan and now petro-Euro (EU will pay Euros for Iranian oil) are real weapons to diminish the Hegemon.

China is terrifying the US MIC and Silicon Valley titans with its 2025 plan for leadership in ten core technologies. This is the real Resistance!

Both of the Double Helix nations are using brain-power to outflank and outpace the Hegemon.
The Empire will be diminished more each year with inventions, innovations and excellent development of technologies by Russia and China.

What does the Resistance offer as strategy and tactics?
Already, half their vocal support is turning away from the genius of Russia, doubting Putin’s Way.

Not surprising. It’s very hard to see the unseen, to know the unknown. Putin is a Master of Surprise.
The entire Security establishment that put him in power and maintains the Russian Federation despite nearly 20 years of destabilization and hybrid war is very aware of his brilliance and their hidden strengths against the Empire. Most of all, they have had no problems for two decades. Only the step-down of Sergei Ivanov for personal reasons (and he is still part of the Security Council in his new role) was a bump in the road. Putin rolls.

Marching in the Immortal Regiment was for me a signal to the West that Bibi was aligned with the ultimate decider. Israel needs Russia. It cannot wage a war against Russia. It cannot wage a war against Iran. It needs others. It needs permission. Russia never would give permission to destroy Iran. Nor to destroy Syria. Nor to destroy Lebanon. Russia is now a benign protector of sorts of these three nations.

To stay in Tartus and Latakia and the East Mediterranean, to expand to Egypt and Libya, Russia must have a very low conflict ME. That is what Putin is working toward with Bibi. Israel will have a role in the long war against terrorism. It will be Intel. Not military. Israel also has an opportunity to benefit economically from a new ME, not just from oil and gas development and pipelines.

Just as his goal in Europe is to break NATO, in the ME Putin’s goal is to break the US-Israel nexus. Russia is subtly forcing Iran’s exit from Syria and trying to change the vector of War in Syria. Russia knows the goal of the Hegemon is to drain Russia in a new long insurgent war within the Syrian borders. If Iran leaves, Israel is less threatened, and the chances of war in the Levant is minimized. That’s the deal Putin wants.

Bibi will accept it. He’ll march along with Putin. That’s the symbolism and meaning of recent events.

“Marching in the Immortal Regiment was for me a signal to the West that Bibi was aligned with the ultimate decider. Israel needs Russia. . . . Bibi will accept it. He’ll march along with Putin. That’s the symbolism and meaning of recent events.”

BN is another stage actor — the ‘democratic’ optics of ribbons in Victory Parades for a domestic Russian-speaking Israeli voting population cannot be discounted. Unlike Putin, BN is on a knife’s edge politically.

Very well said, Larchmonter, well said indeed. Saker’s article is brilliant and full of informations, almost to the point that this tired old brain was overwhelmed. You put all in a nutshell.

Putin is the master of steady and unrelenting pressure against the enemies of Russia and the terrorists in Syria are with no doubt enemies of Russia. Thousands of them have now been sent to Afghan to escape the meat grinder that is Syria and I have few doubts that when CehSha is ‘defeated’ there, these charming moderate head choppers will look north and in my opinion that is and was part of the game plan for Syria and Iran from the beginning.

Everyone makes mistakes, it’s part of life, and VVP is neither immortal nor perfect. In any conflict there are victories great and small and defeats great and small. So far, I see no great defeats for VVP and it was a pleasure to see the other two legs of his troika, PM Lavrov and MoD Shoigu, stay the course with him. Russia is at war with Foggy Bottom, make no mistake, and from what I can see, President Putin is doing his mortal damnedest to keep this war from becoming a hot war which if that occurs, Lord knows the outcome, I surely don’t. I stand by my opinion expressed a week ago, President Putin has made his Stavka using what he thought was appropriate. Time will tell how good this Stavka is and I have no doubts that some will be put out and others brought in. The goal is Victory, pure and simple, and survival, to me, is not victory, it leads to inevitably more war and sacrifice. This victory may be at the point of a bayonet but I am thinking more and more that our victory will be at the point of a pen.

Let me once again welcome you in Moscow. I would like to once again express my gratitude to you for finding it possible to visit Moscow on May 9, our Victory Day, the day we defeated fascism.

We know how the Israelis, and Jewish people in general, relate to the events of the war. And this attitude unites us in many respects: our feelings about Nazism, Fascism, the victims of Nazism, in general, and of the Holocaust, in particular.”

“Regarding the Memorandum signed in Amman on November 8, 2017, it should be mentioned, first and foremost, this document is confidential and, secondly, is of a technical and operational nature defining measures needed to establish the Southern de-escalation zone. I would like to note that there is no reason to overestimate the significance of the Memorandum to national security interests of Israel. Russia respects the Israeli concerns in the field of national security“

I agree fully with Larchmonter’s analysis.
Letting all these actors react in a spur-of-the-moment fashion, even absorbing some damage, as a means to the end of managing them and leading-pulling them towards the desired long-term objective: that’s the Putin Method.
People should have learned by watching how Putin let the three idiots bomb insignificant sites in Syria and ended up losing face and the little prestige they had left. For those who have only raw power to boast about, ineffectual agitation, ending in a loss of face and prestige, is the worst defeat, since it influences their future standing.
You cannot be a superpower if everyone laughs at you and heaps scorn on your foolish actions.
Apply that reading to Netanyahu’s annoying thrashing-about: assess his gains, if you can see any?
The most precious item that Putin and XI gained was time, which is the main resource in the present circumstances:
Time is needed to get the US to discredit itself further all over the world and on all fronts, while the Double Helix gets the ground work firmed up:
– Iran to get closer to within the EAEU and other structures,
– China to outmaneuver the US in the trade war,
– the EU to realise it has nowhere to go except away from the US,
– the temperamental and unreliable Erdogan to realise he can’t get much done on his own,
– the rest of the world generally to realise the US is dangerous for all of them.
– And Putin’s own West-addicted “liberals and assorted oligarchs” to see which side their bread is buttered…
And now, he’s had a long meeting with Assad, and no doubt got him to see issues in the correct light, and show him the way out of all those turbulent and confusing events.
Assad understand Putin: he said there won’t be a WWIII, because of Putin’s wisdom. Which shows Assad’s own wisdom. He has matured under Putin’s guidance.
Against such gains, what would be the point of a fracas with the likes of Netanyahu – or anyone else for that matter?
I’d say, watch and learn – and trust Putin. No need to fret.

I agree with most of what the Saker says here with one exception: “Russia will not fight a war against Israel (unless she is attacked first)”.

Perhaps. But I firmly believe that the only power capable of getting Israel to back off from attacking Syria and organizing a US invasion of Syria as well as Lebanon is Russia. It’s possible that Hizballah in Lebanon can also make Israel back off by threatening a full-scale missile attack. But Russia is the only credible threat Israel has to fear.

This is not to say that Russia wants a war with Israel. Of course not. And Israel does not want a war with Russia – which is the more important point.

The point is that Israel will continue ginning up the destruction or at least degradation of Syria and Lebanon until it is forced to stop militarily. Israel has to do this to get its main goal – the reduction of Iran to the point where it is no longer a regional actor.

Israel’s strategists know that in an Iran war, both Syria and Hizballah are likely to be active in the war on Iran’s side – and even if neither Assad nor Nasrallah decide to enter that war, no competent strategist can assume that. Therefore both countries have to be taken off the board before an Iran war can be started.

The only force in the Middle East that can stop this is Russia. Iran can not because it cannot project enough power against Israel even with its missile arsenal (besides which, using that would bring the US in against Iran, which is Israel’s goal in the first place.). Hizballah can seriously threaten the Israeli economy but in the end can not directly oppose Israeli air power (unless they get a LOT of MANPADs and/or air defense systems.)

The bottom line is that neither Iran nor Hizballah has nuclear weapons. Russia does. And this is why Israel must fear aggravating Russia. This is why Netanyahu runs hat in hand to Russia every couple months to beg Russia to stop doing things that Russia is doing which interfere with Israel’s plans.

Nor does Russia really have to start a war with Israel. All Russia needs to do once they are driven to this realization is send up a couple SU-35s and drop one or two Israeli planes over Lebanon or Israel itself during one of Israel’s raids. They can also, as The Saker says, flood Syria with Pantsirs. They can drop a Khalibre on an Israeli airbase. One, not a volley. That would be enough to warn Israel that Russia is tired of Israel being a spoiler in the Middle East.

What could Israel do? Start bombing Russians in Syria? Not going to happen. Russia has enough assets in the region and could send more to do serious damage to Israel and the Israelis know it. They are counting on Russia to maintain neutrality towards everywhere but Syria.

But Russia must be smart enough to know that a general ME war over Iran is damaging to Russia interests. So anything Russia can do to prevent or at least slow that eventuality should be done.

Saker is correct that Russia has no real skin in the game in the ME conflicts. But Russia does have national interests which will be harmed by an explosion in the ME that may result in more terrorists entering Russia, or economic opportunities closed to Russia by the outcome of an Iran war. So does China, as Iran is a major source of oil. Both countries need to act to prevent US and Israeli hegemony in the region.

In the end, it will come down to Russia to thwart Israeli intentions in the Middle East, as long as that doesn’t raise the threat of WWIII with the US. Russia will not be willing to go to war with the US over the Middle East – and neither will the US be willing to do so.

But there is a lot of maneuver room between that scenario and allowing Israel to run roughshod over Syria and Lebanon and Iran.

Israel is the pulse of the West’s policy and concerns in the region and Russia’s hand is on it. The ability to strike conventionally from the Black, Caspian and the Mediterramean seas is Russia’s ultimate “hammer” if any of the parties cross the line and escalate thoughtlessly…

S300s are already in Syria, ready for “delivery” if things go South. That is why Russia is holding them back as this will mean serious escalation in case of “surprises” as the May 9th and 10th attacks. If RF “delivers”, no plane is safe over Lebanon or North Israel. Everybody knows that.

I always read what you write at least 2 or 3 times because you cover a lot of ground and know a lot about your subject. Your writing also has value because explanatory articles of this type are extremely rare. In fact most (certainly western) “journalism” relies on keeping the masses as uninformed as possible and often just peddling outright lies.

But here’s my point.

Whilst I fully accept that this was not the subject of your article I wonder if we are not getting “Jews” mixed up with Zionism.
Certainly there is a huge Jewish element in Zionism (99%?)
But there do exist “Jews against Zionism” as well as “Christian Zionists”
Many Jews live peacefully in Arab countries.

I am not saying this to in any way defend Jews but to try and clarify what we (all Earth’s population including of course Syria, Iran and Russia) are up against.

From what I have observed and read Zionism seems to have more or less – with a few exceptions – hijacked every single government, their military, their media, their security services, corporations and especially global banking.

Zionist controlled countries suffer from
-massive pedophilia amongst their above-the-law elites
-homosexual marriage and the promulgation of transgenderism in schools combined with dumbing down of the population.
– forced multiculturism creating destabilisation (eg Europe) due to the numbers involved and adding to peoples’ loss of identity.
– destruction of nation states, national identity and sovereign “independence”
– war on the human race through micro wave radiation, toxic genetically modified foods and poice state level surveillance.
– fascism – where all political parties are virtually the same and Zionist corporations own the governments. Free speech disappears.
– in the fields of Art and culture eg the movies – utter depravity and the promulgation of Satanism. Art nowadays can be a pile of discarded trash on a tabletop.
– the aim of bringing about a one world government run by Artificial Intelligence and private corporations owned by a few bloodline families.
– the transformation of the human race through AI, and transhumanism into a slave population serving a tiny Zionist “elite”

The human race is holding on and fighting back. But it is very late in the day.
Much debate has taken place here and elsewhere about just how “Zionised” Russia and China are as they are seen as the last hope for humanity.
Question is do the Russians “get it” and realise what they – and we – are up against? I do not know.

In many ways the war in Syria is not just about the battle for it’s freedom but a global battle between good and evil in the truly religious sense.

Just wanted to try and draw a distinction between “the Jews” and Zionism and maybe get us thinking about what globalism really is.
Surely “Israel” is just the visible tip of a gigantic octopus.
Brilliant article though.

One has to view Zionist entities as parasitic, and not just for “poetic” references, but in a very real sense. There was a massive book published few years ago that (in my view) was a first, all-encompassing attempt to look at the life of parasites. It also talked how parasites were used by some secret services during interrogation sessions, in which a certain parasite was injected into a blood stream of an “enemy spy, or solder” in order to “melt” their brains into submission. This stuff is very real. For example, vaccinations (regardless of what one might think about this subject matter) subduing body’s natural resistance to a certain type of parasites, and as such, weakens immune systems (there’re many immune layers). Anyhow, my point is, that after reading this book, I can’t help but to see the very same parasitical tendencies among some “human looking” entities. The elimination of parasites is an extremely painful procedure. They’re capable of releasing very powerful toxins that can send the entire body into a near state of paralysis, therefore, it is recommended to do it gradually and slowly. BTW, all genetically modified garlic and other naturally anti-parasitic foods are no longer effective. Coincidence?!…

Most of countries, governments and cultures that got infected by parasitic creatures don’t have the tools, or the knowledge, or even self-awareness of their own disease, to combat this problem. One has to walk a long road of preparation for any kind of cure to be successful. I believe Putin knows that and he deals with parasites on a daily basis. It took hundreds of years for some cultures to get to the present level of infection, and it will take a long period of time to cleans one’s culture, thinking and just plain existence from parasitic entities.

Mod: It would be helpful to have a link to the book that you refer to. Thanks

The book title: “This Is Your Brain on Parasites: How Tiny Creatures Manipulate Our Behavior and Shape Society” by Kathleen McAuliffe. It has an interesting chapter about how parasites are perfectly capable of pushing a creature (including humans) to commit suicide. Transfer these function to a society and you get exactly what we have with Zionism and their financial institutions. Fascinating! I suggest reading it in conjunction with “Parasite Rex: Inside the Bizarre World of Nature’s Most Dangerous Creatures” .Plus, “The Woman with a Worm in Her Head: And Other True Stories of Infectious Disease” by Pamela Nagami. These are just some mainstream publications. One can go much deeper into this subject, once the basics are covered.

One more thing: Awhile back, I attended a seminar by this military doctor Simon Yu https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQmYgKV-gI8
He wrote a book titled” Accidental Cure”. He also talks a lot about political and psychological implications of parasitic infections in humans. For him, this is not even a figure of speech. He directly connects parasitic infections to human behavior, political affiliations and even preferences in friends. He is also saying that the majority of parasites are invisible even to the most sophisticated medical/scientific tools/methods, and most of these entities are not really residing in the gut, mostly brain and blood.

One perfect cure for all parasites was found by Raymond Royal Rife, but after he also proved to be able to cure ancer he got boycotted and in the end practically destroyed by the medical establishment under pressure from Big Pharma.

Some more simple devices that may help against parasites; Do a search for Hulda Clark and another for Bob Beck.

Another very good and more natural cure is orally (or topically) taking concentrated and stabilised allicin, a substance released from garlic. This stuff works wonders! It can be found under the brand names Allimax and Allimed. It’s produced in the UK but my supplier is in Germany:

Good article, Saker. And inspiring too. It shows by several constructive comments. I will add few.

Consider V.V. Putin opening Krimski most (bridge) few days ago by:

1. driving personally red new Kamaz truck,
2. leading a fleet of 30-50 red new Kamaz trucks over
3. longest bridge in Europe completed
4. without cost overruns
5. way before deadline
6. with a number of innovative construction features
7. involving over 250 state and private companies ( entire RF was involved, as he said)
8. involving bomb and ordnance clearing, archeologists, ecologists, engineers, designers,
military defense specialists, historians, etc etc …
9. getting rid of security details and sitting in this truck with two other truckers
10. dressed in simple clothes
11. and simply invited them to start driving by saying “pojehali…” and climbing the truck
12. according to Peskov, he even has truck driving license!

To me, this is quintessential V.V. Putin leadership. Perhaps I forgot few other details that illustrate
both real, symbolic and tangential meanings of this event.

No doubt he and Russia are on a new road that leads somewhere where most of RF population wants to be. But his investment in infrastructure pales in comparison to his investment in RF youth and population in general, (health, education and food quality) truly the future and the present of the country. He definitely is not ignoring retirees disabled and veterans.

So, few average appointments, few PR misstatements means absolutely nothing.

Saker, did you miss the part where bibi wore the St George’s ribbon in Moscow, what do you think that did to those morons in kiev etc when they saw that?
Regarding the S-300, I still believe Syria doesn’t need it now – nice to have, but not necessary, (and can therefore be used as a bargaining chip) a bit like the ukrops getting Javelins – while Putin got a concession out of bibi. As it is, in Syria it is going very well clearing the mercenary terrorists.
And Putin got the bridge built to Crimea, a major feat, which was also ahead of schedule.
What Putin wants is another 2 months before properly responding to kiev and the US – although Nord Stream 2 might stretch that period a bit longer.
Regarding the US, pride goes before a fall; doesn’t matter how powerful that entity is.

I appreciate the overview and the attempts to speak as an Orthodox man. I really don’t think any other hat fits anymore. I do have a small quarrel, however.

Isn’t it so that RT is Atlantic Integrationist? They obviously have deals to feed us news from Reuters, FOX broadcasting, and the NASA bs machine.

This site has featured commentary from the head of RT. Her view, far as I can tell, is that “America is not nice to me and my friends, so I’m with Putin.” Not exactly a principled stance. It may be re-stated as “be nice to us and we’ll do what you want.” That seems to be the EU’s position as well!

My question is: could we not say that this website shares Putin’s problem? Is there here also a tendency to want to include the Atlantic Integrationist that by now, must be excluded?

The only question that really matters is whether (1) Putin seeks to postpone a major war against the US until the last moment (while preparing for it) or (2) he believes that such a war is indeed avoidable.

If (1) is correct, Humankind still has a fair chance. Otherwise, its (our) destiny is slavery.

Great article, a balanced view of what is happening in the world. Only problem is the description of the S300 issue as a Russian error; I think not. The ‘re-think’ by Russia of potentially supplying S-300 to Syria is a message to the American ‘coalition’ and Nato. Russia would help Syria defend itself against empire aggression. On the other hand, if the empire refrains from renewed aggression, no S-300 as this would shift the balance of power heavily against Israel.
Balance of power is key to deterrence…

Russia is not in the Middle East to help Iran to defeat Israel nor get US out of there if that is even possible. Do not overestimate their mission. She is there to stop the war, which is quite better than the objectives of US. Russia’s distance to Israel is almost the same with its distance to Iran.

The article below is gold in that sense and explains what Russia is up to:

E. Magnier article is effectively quite interesting. It complements The Saker article, as it explains in detail the history and dynamics of Russia’s intervention in Syria, and its relationships with the local forces.
“It was only when the Pentagon disagreed with Kerry to go along with Russia and halt the war in Syria that Moscow decided to continue fighting and liberate Aleppo.”
“Neither Iran nor Syria will accept any Russian or Israeli ultimatum. Russia would not have achieved anything in Syria without Iranian allies and their ground troops and the reverse is also true.”
“Russia and Israel largely enjoy a good relationship regardless of their differences in Syria.”
This goes well with above Saker analysis. Russia is not and will never be part of the “resistance axis” in the ME.

“Without Russia, we most probably would have bombs flying about the Middle East between Iran and Israel, and Hezbollah and Israel, and Syria and Iraq – and most probably some Arab countries would have been in flames.”
Russia managed to avoid a bloodbath (for the time being), but not to avoid a bloodbath as such.
“He (Putin) seized the golden opportunity to move his chess game to make the US to understand that Russia is no longer weak and is capable of protecting its interests outside its territory or comfort zone.”
…
“Russia moved to Syria not to win a war but to halt it, to prevent jihadists from having the upper hand and to protect its interests and those of its allies. Russia wanted to eliminate all Caucasian jihadists who joined ISIS and al-Qaeda to prevent these from travelling back home (or recruiting similar back home). It also wanted three more things: to ensure a long-term presence for its naval Mediterranean base in Tartous, for all parties to come to the political negotiation table, and for the US to stop the “regime change” goal. Russia also has in mind to exploit the very rich Syrian oil and gas and protect its gas supply line to Europe.”

Whatever her goals, interests, failings, internal dynamics etc… Russia is in a dynamic opposed to the empire, as the empire is a just nut bully looking for complete hegemony.

We’ll probably have a better understanding of the overall situation if we realize that Russia herself was and remained an Empire. No more the ‘sleeping giant suspended between the two great divisions of the world, between East and West, with one elbow resting on China and the other on Germany’ of Pyotr Chaadaev, but a fully awake one.

Russia cannot be “pressured” by any means because of the holocaust – maybe this is the main reason why Putin invited Bibi to Moscow at 9 May – Russia has no moral debt at all towards Israel for the past, in fact it is vice-versa the truth. Given the Israeli lobby in the US and the mea-culpa feeling in Europe, that’s a very unpleasant realty for both US and Europe and of course Israel. The Zionist power has no Damocles Sword in hands when it comes to Russia. Therefore, I don’t think that the two countries will never have a “intimate” relationship in the future as believed here by many. Neither have the zionists forgotten the past of old Russia because of Khazaria, (their hatred against the Czar and everything he represented),nor have the Russians forgotten the Bolshevik revolution and what followed (including the first world war, the bloody civil war, the tremendous work and suffering during the first years under Stalin, then the second world war with huge losses, rebuilding the country and then…losing almost everything again in 90’s – without any war, being looted by guess who ? the same zionists in cahoots with the west – the same west which is under the yoke of holocaust and the west led by London and Washington who liberated the European west) Now, the former east is in the same shoes, under the same “umbrella”. For the facade,a few countries have been left to play an reenactment of the past, letting you believe that there is a revival (it is not, everything there is controlled). In these circumstances, does really Putin taken side or believe his Israeli “partner” in full wing ? If he does, he lost his mind, but I cannot accept such an argument.

Great article, and good job calling out the “Hollywood mindset” that is so prevalent in the US. I think there are three major “Hollywood” misconceptions that a lot of pro-Russian westerners suffer from. One is the mythical importance the boomer generation puts on public opinion, and the idea that a lot of angry complaining people will automatically force a powerful oligarchy to change its ways. Its simply not true in the west especially. It is extremely easy to co-opt or just ignore any peaceful protest movement, and Putin certainly knows this so his actions are not aimed to inspire the smallish group of anti-empire westerners to go chant and take bong hits in the streets until the empire collapses, they are aimed at convincing the defense and foreign ministries of other countries that Russia is powerful and reasonable. Judging from the stream of world leaders visiting Moscow or Sochi, they are getting quite a different impression of things than the Russia Insider commentariat. Corollary to this is the fact that a huge election victory gives a leader the mandate to do what he wants for a while, even if that means somewhat ignoring the opinions of the people who just elected him, and its clear that Putin trusts Medvedev more than a lot of Russian public opinion does.
The second misconception is that somehow Russia is supposed to assemble a group of white hat countries to go all armageddon on the black hat countries. Putin truly believes in multipolarity and is willing to make friends with any country that wants to. The US cannot win a military or economic war against Iran, let alone Russia or China, by itself, so Putin has been relentlessly working to pull allies out of the US camp. He has clearly succeeded with Turkey, Egypt, Philippines, and is working hard on Germany and Israel. This is the best protection Iran and Syria can have.
The third one is thinking that magic weapons can win wars, and that the good guys can win a war with no casualties, hence the whining when the S300 does not show up, or a few people are killed in Syria or Donbass. As wrong as it seems to Americans who have no clue about war, a general will be willing to lose thousands of troops to capture an important position. Its Assad and the leaders of Donbass and Iran, who have the first responsibility to respond to provocations (which is what they are, they have zero military significance) on their country not Russia, and clearly they are willing to sacrifice some soldiers for a larger strategic victory. The S300 brouhaha is just hilarious. Its quite possibly already there and the Russians are lying, (which is another thing good commanders do in real wars) but either way, Russia is clearly determined to defend Syria, and the statement about them having all they need was a thinly veiled threat. If the Syrians need it and can properly defend and use it, then they certainly do have it. If they do not have it, its because they do not need or cannot properly defend or use it yet. Its rather telling that Syria just responded to an Israeli provocation for the first time since 1973.
In the movies the the hero is usually indecisive, naive, and a bungler who somehow miraculously wins, but this is real life, the Russians are the good guys right now, and they are brave, competent and ruthless. Putin is brilliantly and cynically exploiting every little crack to break up the system of alliances the US uses to impose its will on the world, and it is a joy to watch. Everyone knows that when the US sells weapons to a country, it gives them leverage over that country, well guess what, the S400 is going to give Russia the same leverage over whoever buys it. And now we can see how the decision not to cut the gas off to Europe is paying dividends, as Russia looks like a stable alternative to US arrogance. That is where the real war is being fought right now, not in goofy pr stunts or a few missiles fired at Damascus or Donetsk, and the parade of leaders visiting Russia, or asking to buy their weapons, shows who is winning it.

I think the Saker underestimates the value of splitting Europe from the US. Of course Putin will keep the “Atlantic Integrationists” because now they will serve as “European Integrationists.” Russia sees a bright opportunity for German / European and Russian partnership and this has a lot to offer Europe. I’d sacrifice a few cabinet positions to the integrationists if they would help me win over Europe. The US already lost Turkey. Think of what a change in the alignment would occur if the Europeans threw off their vassalage. It is actually fairly likely. There will be an election in Syria. The Americans will stay in Syria until are able to negotiate safety for their mercenaries.

My take: Russia was losing on the Battlefield, or simply did not want to fight WWIII, but it is winning diplomatically. So wise to take it back to negotiations. And they do want to do everything according to international law, do they not? I actually prefer the probable outcome to negotiations than WWIII myself.

They are more successful, swifter, with less casualties for the Syrians and less collateral damage each and every battle. Boilers close in a day or two. Militants surrender more swiftly than ever.

The minimalist operations of the Russian Military and Aerospace Forces are spectacularly successful.

Do you mean they have not confronted Turkey or SDF or CENTCOM directly?

That is not in their mission, scope or plans.

Donbass? Two Ukie platoons were wiped badly last week by the miners and farmers of the Donbass Army. Nine dead and a dozen or so wounded.

Today, the Ukie artillery is back with their favorite war crime, trying to hit the chlorination system of the Water Supply for Donetsk.

I’d say, NATO and US EuroCommand has failed big time. The Nazis are a travesty after three years of training, all kinds of new equipment, embedded US leadership down to company and platoon level, and even adding Wahhabi Chechens to their vile fascist troops.

I think you’ve got to a possible endgame target: win over Europe, like Turkey, and all of a sudden, the Atlantic Integrationalists just become the Atlantic division of the Eurasian Sovereigntists.
I like it.

And Europe is steadily being pushed away… for the time being, before the “hidden hand” plays it’s inevitable tricks.

“The historical Russia was founded on Patristic Christianity and the Roman civilizational model and the Soviet Union on Marxism-Leninism”

The leaders of those times had very dissimilar fates: Tsar Nicholas II, charged into World War I to gallantly help Orthodox brethren in Serbia, but ended up losing power, and was assassinated (together with his family); and Stalin, who tried to make a deal with Hitler, even had a Molotov- Ribbentrop pact, but when attacked, managed to repel the Nazis and ended up as a victorious leader of World War II.

So who does VVP emulate? Economically he has chosen less of Marxist- Socialist path (perhaps to be more in line with China’s reforms), but geopolitically, more of Stalinist, realpolitik, wait-and-see style.

I understand the Saker’s disappointment with the cabinet ministers. Here are my comments about this:

Kudrin: as Head of the Accounts chamber will not be able to set any economic policy..so he is on board but not in a key position.

Mutko: I understand he is an unsavoury character, but he is still the head of the Russian Football Union.. he was the one behind the winning bid to host the 2018 World Cup. As Construction minister he can now oversee the final touches of the stadium preparations.

Medvedev, enacted the agricultural counter sanctions against the EU. He also rapped the EU/US for sanctions against Iran.. in a world with increasing trade wars, he just may be the right person for this job.

Meanwhile, despite the PR campaigns, the ‘boots on the ground’ in Syria now seem to have the ability to choose their next jihadist stronghold and attack it and force it to surrender. Its not easy. Its not quick. But it does seem to be predicatably successful, as we saw in E.Ghouta and is now happening in the Yarmouk area south of Damascus.

If you told the Syrian high command that they could roll up one pocket of terrorists after another, and all they’d have to do is to take and absorb some symbolic air and missile strikes that follow each terrorist defeat, I think they’d take that deal. And if you went back 4 years when they seemed to be losing the war, and offered them that deal, then they’d have certainly taken it and drank a toast in celebratioon.

The EU announced today that it was re-activating blocking mechanisms against US sanctions in order to continue trade with Iran.

That’s where push comes to shove on the Iran deal lies. When the US tries to use the threats of sanctions to get their way, does the EU give in to their demands or not. The news today seems to be leaning toward the “or not” end of things, but we are at a point where I’d expect a lot of posturing.

Meanwhile, the EU has said it will now use Euros instead of dollars in oil trade with Iran. Just another blow against the power of the USDollar, and one self-inflicted by Trump.

When the Saker mentioned that ‘surviving’ was the immediate goal of any conflict with the empire, it reminded me of a famous American basketball coach who used to tell his team that winning the college basketball tournament was simply a matter of “survive and advance”. And, thinking of coach Valvano then led to thoughts of is amazing TV speech just before he died.

Putin has been elected for making Russia great, not for adventures in the middle east or in any scenario, so Russia is not going to jeopardize its stability with wars with Israel or any other nation, unless provoked. Putin is not a maniac, as Netanyahu or Trump.

I am going to join in and say: your comment is perfectly correct.
As much as I appreciate Saker’s post, I can see his frustration resulting from Russia’s zig-zaging.
I will repeat: Putin’s job is to make Russian Citizen’s life better and not get involved with some other people’s problems. Each military adventure costs money, and unfortunately Russia does not have the luxury of owning “Fiat Money Printing Presses” those are in “NY”.
On the other hand I said it some time ago and I am going to repeat it: The war in Syria drags on into it’s seventh year. Why? Let me repeat what Israel Shamir said quite some time ago: “they do not have what it takes to win this war”. This is why I love his to the point posts. I can appreciate the Syrians being worn out because of it’s duration, but this is their own fault. I also remember Putin saying some time ago that Russia can not afford to lose it’s soldiers in any war (not Syria, not Iran), hence Russia’s push for robots. Stalin and his gang did not consider Russian lives precious, this is why they murdered millions upon millions of Russians.
My final comment to “excitement junkies”: relax. Putin will not satisfy your need for “excitement” just because you demand it. Live with it.

I learned an important and sad truth from your article – Israel is the centre. Israel controls both main political streams in USA – Republicans and Democrats, and Israel controls, although in a more subtle way, both main political streams in Russia – Atlanticists and Eurasian Soveregnists.

Israel likes to exploit ‘ambiguity’ about its nuclear weapons in order to keep funds flowing in from the US. It is a nice bit of ju jitsu for Russia to use ambiguity about Syria’s S-300s when dealing with Israel. If Russia has supplied S-300s, they are not going to admit it.

Thanks for another great analysis. IMHO, Russia’s mistakes have been primarily tactical. Just as you mentioned in WW2, it has acted superbly at the strategic and operational level. If someone had told us in August of 2015 where Syria would be today, none of us would have believed it.

As pertains to the S300, Russia simply will never allow Israel to change the strategic picture in Syria. Israel has been careful not even to try. It is very agonizing to watch Israel sneak attack with relative impunity. Just as it was (and still is) agonizing to watch Ukrainian fascists shell Donetsk without any obvious interference from Russia. But in both cases restraint is paying off.

This by the way is why Russia seems more tolerant about Israeli attacks on Syria than American ones. The US actually can change the strategic picture if it is willing to risk war with Russia (and no one can guarantee that it won’t try, even if unlikely)

In Europe, the Ukrainian government decays by the day. It’s harder and harder for the EU to support it. Add to that Trump being Trump and you will notice that even the most servile of Euros are growing weary of the US and looking to improve relations with Russia. When Donald Tusk(!!!) says of America “with friends like these…” something has changed. Nordstrom Stream II is moving along. Merkel is flying to Sochinevery other week. And if the EU can ignore sanctions on Iran, well then…why not ignore them on Russia too?

As for Syria, the main question is how far the US and Israel are prepared to escalate. Because if they don’t then it as a steady road to Syrian victory. Russia, along with Iran should be, and probably are, in consultations planning a response.

Also, while many point out that Russia should be doing X, Y and Z, perhaps we can ask what more other countries can do? Is Iran offering Russia use of its airbases for strategic bombers? They did it for a while a couple of years ago, and it seems it was a good idea for Russia, Iran and Syria. Iran is proudly independent, and rightfully so, but coordinating more and more closely with Russia will help save Syria (and Iraq.) Also, perhaps Russia would be more inclined to do more itself the more it sees others doing.

They are of course negotiating how far each can go and where the “red lines” are. That’s what diplomacy is, even if most Americans won’t recognize it since America has not conducted diplomacy for at least 20 or 30 years. However, I’m not so sure that Russia’s red line is where it has been suggested which is all the way down by its goal. That is, Russia may not be giving up Iran to Israel. Or not even close.

What if Russia’s “red line” is where Lavrov was hinting that it was? Lavrov dropped the hint that Syria might get S-300’s when the F-UK-US trio was attacking Syria. Perhaps that’s still where the red line is located? Ie, Russia might be saying that perhaps its not supplying S-300’s (or Buk’s) now, but if other countries keep attacking Syria, then that’s too far and Russia could supply better air defenses then? That was what Lavrov appeared to say. That if others kept attacking Syria then Russia could supply S-300’s. And the Kremlin spokesperson was very clear about saying that Syria would get what it needed. Perhaps Syria doesn’t need S-300’s now, if Netanyahu agreed to call off his attacks. The Israeli’s obviously placed some value on Syria not having S-300’s, since Damascuis to the Israeli border is far less than the range of that system. Perhaps Russia told Israel that as long as Israel didn’t abuse Syrian airspace then Russia would not need to supply S-300’s to Syria. But, if Netanyahu continued down the course that he appeared to be on prior to his visit to Moscow, then Russia would give Syria what it needed, in that case S-300’s to deter the Israelis.

It seems to me that The Saker has not completely grasped the essence of Putin’s new economic program. QUOTE: “How can Putin say that he wants serious reforms while keeping the exact same type of people in command? If indeed the Medvedev government did such a great job, then why is there any need for such major reforms?” – It is a cardinal mistake here to talk about “reforms” (the more so “serious reforms”). Reforming is when you change the structure of a system in a quest to make it function better. The liberals have for the last decade been calling for some mythical reforms (aka “structural reforms”). I say mythical because the essence of the wished-for reforms have never been really spelled out, but the general idea has involved privatization, unfunding of the military, and abolishing the social welfare state – and most importantly they have wanted political reforms under the devise “Putin must go.” There could possibly be other kinds of reforms also, and naturally the concept reform is also applied to denominate change in general, but by the proper use of the word one means fundamental changes to the operational structure of a political and economic system.

But Putin has not announced any such reforms. What Putin has announced are new ambitious goals of output, produced by the essentially same “unreformed system”, which is only natural because the system works well and does not need to be further reformed (it has been reformed between 2000 and 2013). Hereby, I naturally refer to the institutional framework of the system and not particular people, who certainly must be changed. The idea is that the economy has reached under the previous presidential term a new level which serves as a platform for taking the new giant leap forward in terms of deliverables. (I am exaggerating with “giant leap” as I personally think that the goals could be much more ambitious, though, and the levels of financing should at least be doubled).

This also answers why Medvedev would stay. He has done a good job administrating the economic team. The most important reason for him staying on is however the fact that Putin wants to keep the competing political forces in positions of power, to engage them, and as checks and balances. And also, that Putin’s ultimate successor would most probably be introduced through the seat of prime minister, but the time is not yet ripe for it. The shelf-life of a Russian PM is max. 2 years. And it would obviously only be confusing to experiment with another intermediary PM in between.

Probably the best comment on the thread but we shall see. Putin needed to put somebody new at the central bank to commandeer the issuance of credit and sovereignize their national bank. Me thinks Sergei Glaziev had the right policy propositions.

I think it is a mistake to single out Mutko’s nomination here in this context. It is bewildering in general why serious thinker and West-skeptics would pick on Mutko. The doping scandal is CIA/MI6 covert operation based entirely on Western lies and propaganda and their abuse of power. There is obviously no fault of Mutko in this. Therefore, Mutko’s nomination must be seen as a gesture that Putin does not intend to sacrifice innocent Russians just because they are the objectives of Western covert operations.

For The Saker, the triumph of Russia and Iran will be to survive the economic sanctions, the political harassment and the continuous military provocations (and in the case of Iran, the open war), that the United States and Israel carry out. The problem with that is that the United States can still afford to maintain this strategy of encroachment and attrition for several years, given that internally there is no political or social opposition, as was the case of the Vietnam War.
The same goes for Israel, if it can continue to bomb Syria at will, eventually to Iran, to Lebanon (in addition to the permanent subjugation of the Palestinians), then the chances that an alliance of these countries, with Russia’s support, could stop them at some point are diluted, since there are no clear commitments and precise definitions of how far the aggressions and provocations can be tolerated. And also to that extent, survival alone is not enough, because the aggressor remains unpunished; he does not suffer losses and maintains his aggression without consequences; permanently weakening his enemies.
It seems to me that the mere contention and survival does not presage the triumph of the Anglo-Zionist opponents; but the permanence of these, as impunity aggressors, although they do not win either.

Russia needs to stand *for* something, not just against something else.

A few years ago President Putin stated that he is against GMO crops. Looking from another point of view at this statement, he declared that he is for organic / traditional farming. If his words reflected the wishes of the Russian citizens, then Russia stands for organic / traditional farming.

Looking at the way diplomacy is conducted in the West and in Russia, then Russia (its diplomats) stands for real diplomacy and not throwing insults at others.

Russia also stands for doing everything possible to have good relations with its neighbors (remember Vladivostok – Lisbon).

Russia (its energy companies) also stands for living up to its word. Russian gas exports to Europe were always in promised amount and time.

Russia also stands for attempting to save lives. Western diplomats, forgotten by their own countries got out of Yemen with the help of Russia.

“First, there was the crushing defeat of their candidate in the USA and the election of a candidate they rabidly hated.”

You mean netanyahoo’s butt boi trump was defeated?

The most extremist zionazi-gays were/are behind the trump regime, while the slightly less rabid faction pushed clinton, inc. This is reflected in the media, as well. The most extremist zionazi-gays promoted trump (“conservative” talk radio and fox, as well as the fanatical far right print/internet media, for example) and still do. Right now, during the Palestinian protests, these freaks are promoting israel 24/7 in the same sickening xenophobic manner as their massa’s un mouthpiece, haley.

Think of trump as the likud choice for their colonial governor in the usa. One can’t get any more zionazi-gay than that.

Zionists were not crushed that Trump won. To suggest otherwise is to think that the elections are not fraudulent/rigged.
The article that Saker references by Ollie Richardson is totally one sided; it states that everything that Putin and Russia are doing is correct. For example, Richardson says that is good that Russia has an unofficial agreement with the USA that allows the USA to occupy eastern Syria because it provides an escape route for the yet to be defeated USA backed proxies. This will be proven true only if the USA ever leaves eastern Syria. I predict that the USA will never leave eastern Syria.
Putin has such a strong mandate from the people that he could give give a speech wherein he explains how Russian oligarchs are exploiting working class Russians and then the next day line the oligarchs against the wall and have them shot. But he won’t do that. The painful reality is that Putin is a capitalist politician who serves the capital class.

Thanks for writing another great article dear Saker. Hopefully this also means you are now in better health. Your writings always provide some soothing relief to the demoralized lot during trying times like now.

There was one thing you mentioned that I found very true and quite dispiriting. Yes, it seems even Iran has their share of “Atlanticists.” I wretched at the sight of Iran rushing in to order all those Airbuses and even Boeings. I mean why would you waste literally so many tens of billions and in the process open yourself up to further sanctions and pressures?! And now I observe their (futile imo) attempts to court the Europeans into economically remaining engaged in defiance of Washington. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry; have they learned nothing?! If it like this with Iran, I can only imagine how much influence the Atlanticists must hold in Russia, an actual European country. The West has some very tenacious bootlickers and fifth columnists in many societies who are firmly convinced there can be no societal, technological, economic progress without cooperation (meaning surrender) to it.

One recent event showed clearly that Lavrov and Putin have lost their Nerve.
The US unilaterally delayed issuing visas to Aeroflot pilots, effectively barring Aeroflot from landing in the US.
The US State Department were then questioned whether they were not worried about Russian retaliation.
This is the first time i have seen the State Department officials in a real panic as they had to potentially face the consequence of their action: Russia was “considering whether to close its airspace to the US” it was clear to me that the State Department realised they had gone too far.

In the end Lavrov blinked first and stated “things are bad but not yet SO bad” and so Russia did not follow through on this threat of retaliation.
And the western media identified this as a clear sign that Russia will cave in under pressure.

But imagine the geopolitical reality: the US creates a petulant irritant – and Russia could have shown its red line and instantly barred the US carriers from Russian airspace, which would have cost the US immensely more operational costs than the denial of US airspace to Russia. I bet the US would have backed down….

Can anyone enlighten with more details here: does Russia still allow the US overflying rights for the US to continue to destroy Afghanistan?
Why does Russia tolerate this? If it is all about “following only Russian interests” then surely Russian interests are not only tangibles but also intangibles and peripherals, as these latter could become tangibles in future? i.e: Afghanistan might look on Russia more positively if it saw Russia block further US activities??

Is there a timed agreement for the delivery of the Russian RD180 engines to the US? ie when will this delivery end? are there signs the Russians might want to extend this agreement, to appease the Americans?

Is there a timed agreement between Russia and the Ukraine for the supply of gas and oil through the Ukrainian pipeline network? ie is it going to be terminated? and when? and are there signs that Russia will cave in and continue to supply through this network, to appease the Americans?

However much all the explanations about Russian commitments and involvements are rationalised from the Russian perspective, the Russian government needs to understand better how Russian behaviour is viewed in the US. The US is behaving like a bully and you dont stop a bully by appeasing his actions all the time….it only makes things worse for Russia in the long term.

Putin reminds me of a jilted lover who continuously tries to win her lover’s affection back.

Also, to continually read how Russia is only in Syria to fight terrorists and no one else belies his March 1 speech when he sounded so firm that Russia would stand by its allies. Russia’s allies better think twice that Russia is dependable in that area.

Today Merkel managed to persuade Putin to still transit gas through ukraine to give them something ….and still wants to keep usa happy by buying some more expensive LNG from them too.Putin agreed so long as an economical contract could be drawn up….hhhmm….is that just keeping an option open in case of Nordstream troubles for Germany’s safeguarding(uaa claiming it could be used for secret listening devices against nato in the Baltic ye gods) …or compassion for ukraine to keel thenm quiet and leverage for Donbass over the ukraine…

“And Iran was right when it became an Islamic Republic: if we want to defeat the Empire we need to always let spiritual matters and moral crieria remain above any of our “pragmatic” worldly political considerations or national/ethnic loyalties: that is how we can defeat those who place a dollar value on absolutely everything they see in their narrow materialistic worldview.”

According to a Persian guy I worked with, Iran is very corrupt, as “the mullahs have stolen everything”. Not to take away anything from them in helping Assad stave off the Takfiri monsters, but their power structure is not as pure as whatever principles they espouse.

My friend,
I have read your super long post, and I have only four things to say.

• First, given Putin’s super long tenure and his not-inconsiderable string of achievements, you are too quick to judge his actions. Who knows how many things are being played behind the scenes?
• Second, he’s only a mortal; like all of us, he, too, has physical and emotional needs. There is only so much a person can do. And as he is getting older, he needs all the support he can get. This is *not* the time to antagonize people. The old coworkers might not be the best, but at least they are known quantities.
• Third, the world is toying with nuclear catastrophe—it is not a matter of “if” but of “when”. I think you undervalue Putin’s restraint and calmness. As an Orthodox Christian, the realization that a single mistake could lead to an unfathomable disaster must be crushing.
• Finally, as a believer to a believer, allow me to remind you that this world is not for ever; in fact, all indications show that we are quickly approaching the end times. The best we can do is provide as much calmness as possible, in the hopes that more people will find God and salvation.

Instead of being overly critical, I think some gratefulness for all he sacrificed for us, is in order.

A very detailed analysis, Saker.
I have a feeling, my personal one, that Putin and his team will move forward to a new era for Russia and all humans. Everything to be revealed, lots never to be revealed.

I got an impression of Russia’s armed forces from Auslanders novels, especially his first one. I also just finished Dominic Lieven’s Russia against Napoleon, fantastic book and in my experience the only English language historian I have seen who is a liar and propagandist. You get the impression if you read both books that the soldiers of 1812-1814 could interchange with soldiers of today in many respects. Not all of course, but certainly the military is an entity unto itself. And that is how it should be. The Kshatriya does not take advice from merchants or farmers in conducting defence of the people and civilisation.

As for Russia’s future identity, I hope it’s the same as Russia’s old values, the Slavic and Orthodox values that help people find their place in the natural world, conducting themselves in a dharmic, natural way.

As I prepare this early morning for the long fasting day of Ramadan, I read this lengthy article with much interest and even enjoyed it.

Very powerful, critical thinking and high moral stance by the Saker……this lengthy but very deep article by the Saker can only be summed up in my opinion with one word: “Respect” (to the Saker).

The stand-out conclusions for me were:

“And this, in turn, means that those of us who oppose the Empire and support Putin and Russia must imperatively make that support conditional upon a clearly stated set of moral and spiritual principles, not on a “my country right or wrong” kind of loyalty or, even less so, on a “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” kind of fallacy.”

and

“Russia needs to stand *for* something, not just against something else.”

Furthermore, the contrast mentioned by the Saker (in his conclusion) between the Russian Military and Russian Politicians / Businessmen / civilian society is I believe a very very important observation. This contrast is mirrored in the past and present also in other countries. I also believe that their are groups of Russian intellectuals, scholars and scientists (which some of them I have personally met) who have this high moral standing similar to the one of the Russian military as mentioned by the Saker.

What I still do see missing in these high moral Russian parts of society is the “spiritual side”, as if the Soviet Union time had a toll on the spiritual side of several Russian generations.

As a Muslim, I can deeply connect with these intellectual Russians I have met on many aspects. There modesty, balance, respect and logic actually feels as a well developed spiritual side but without them even knowing it. When you speak to some knowledgeable Russians, you can feel as you are speaking to a human who has grown up as a rich and multi-cultural person. You feel the civilization background inside the person.

I hope for the people of Russia that they return to their religious and spiritual background and combine it with their high moral standings and their love of their country. I truly believe that a nation cannot disconnect from the Zionist-Western Empire without a spiritual moral background. Otherwise it will be continuously plagued by hypocrisy and selfishness, which only leads to its eventual demise.

When Kudrin was rehabilitated he became less of a danger. Putin keeps several potential enemies close, just look at the oligarchs. Kudrin also gave Russia the reserve funds which made it possible to save the budget after the sanctions.

I thought Medvedev would have to go. Why is he still there? Perhaps because he has worked hard. Perhaps not to give Navalny a victory.

Several thousand years ago the Levites conquered the Jews.
Several hundred years ago the Levites conquered Englishmen.
Several dozen years ago the Levites conquered US Americans.https://www.bibleonline.ru/bible/eng/04/01/
So, for several thousand years all Jews have been paying one tenth of their income to the Levites.
For several hundred years Englishmen and US Americans have been murdering, robbing and enslaving people all over the world on behalf of their masters – the Levites.
Is it any wonder that today actually all money in the world belong to the Levites so that they can do whatever they want?
Is it any wonder that all mass media, Hollywood, and etc. are a property of the Levites?
So why all of a sudden Russia should be in any way different than any other country of the world?
If we only had a better look at what the Levites have been doing to all people of the world during these several post Old Testament millennia through their conquered slaves: Jews, Englishmen and US Americans, then everybody would see Israel, England and the USA for what they truly have turned into – highly immoral and incredibly stupid pawns of the Dark…
***
But still Russia under V. V. Putin has been doing way better than any other country in the world. But it’ll take some time – reconstruction of economy, construction of a new world order, and etc.
As for D. A. Medvedev – he is a part of Putin’s team.
At the same time the group of pro-Western “liberals” have already lost all their top ranking positions in the government of Russia – please have a look at what M. Khazin is saying here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfJ1U_IQLkc

>The contract for supplying advanced Russian S-300 anti-aircraft systems to Syria remains in force, the Syrian Deputy PM Qadri Jamil confirmed during a visit to Moscow. He is seeking to secure a credit from Russia.
“All the agreements between Russia and Syria over arms supply are underway,” Jamil said. “The contracts continue; they are in force.”

>He was speaking at a joint media conference after meeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Russia signed a contract to supply the weapons several years ago before the internal conflict started. Moscow defends the planned delivery as legitimate and purely defensive, but is addressing concerns from other regional players that the S-300s would tip the balance of power in the Middle East.

Didn’t Russia also renege (or rather, indulge in lengthy prevarication) on an agreement to prove Iran with S-300?

Israel occupies part of Syria and regularly bombs Syria and murders Syrians with impunity. But Russia’s is only concerned with Russian interests. Should we take this as a lesson for the degree of concern we should have for NATO threats on Russia’s border? (Nowhere near the disaster that Syria experiencing)

Wishful thinking suggests Russia is actually aiming for long-term sustainable solutions and avoiding short-term pyrrhic solutions (which would undermine the long term). But Russia is doing a real nasty job of telegraphing the mindset. But reality suggests Syrians will be thrown under a bus if Russia would find that to be in its self-interest.

“We better get used to the idea that what happened in the past couple of weeks will happen again in the future.”

This last sentence of the article is most correct. What we have seen over the last few weeks, over the last few years, over the last few decades gives us a very good idea of what Putins Russia stands for and what Russia will do in the future.
What Putin would like is if it is at all possible to be on good terms with all countries. He is not going to be the worlds policeman.
He is not going to have a war with Israel. He is not going to save Iran from Israel or the US.

There is a huge difference between the bulk of the Jewish people and the warmongering zionist leaders in Israel. Given the overwhelming evidence of atrocities committed by successive representatives of the latter, I would argue that any human being that does not reject their vicious oppression is -in my view- a human being with compromised ethics.

confusing..since just the other day i read your article lambasting Putin as looking weak…anyways…if Russia doesn’t believe they have any responsibility to prevent israel bombing Syria and Iran forces there…then they deserve everything that is coming their way.

at some point the only resistance left in Syria will be the Russians if they maintain their presence because under no circumstances will israel or the USA stop their intentions of removing Assad and then destroying Iran.

EXPLAIN to me how THAT serves Russia and explain to me why STOPPING those intentions by delivering air defense to Syria is a bad idea.

because i cant figure out how Russia plans to survive beyond its boarders…isolated…which is the ultimate goal of the american military and economic forces.

This excellent article by Saker makes many good points. I am especially on board with his high estimation of the importance of spirituality in all world affairs.

Some commenters here seem to feel that it is OK if Russia throws Syria and Iran “under the bus” and only pays attention to it’s own safety. I disagree. Letting these two countries be destroyed and come under the Empire’s control would be disastrous to the interests of Russia. If Putin waits too late and only draws red lines at the border of Russia, he will find himself painted into a corner without the significant help of the Iranian military and geographic space to help fend off the Empire. Also, pushing through the Belt and Road program is crucial for the Russia/China alliance, which is necessary to defeat the Empire’s aggressive moves. The Empire is doing everything possible to sabotage the BRI, and the route through Iran and Syria is part of this disruptive strategy. Russia must protect the infant web of connectivity that is being born; that starts by defending Syria and Iran.

So Putin has Russia’s defenses (new weapons) in place and is safe from attack. In other words the crocodile is going to eat him last? But when Russia is the last one standing, there will be many other ways to skin the cat.
No legal or moral obligation to do anything? Tolerating psychopathy no problem, not a big one anyway.
You’re possibly right.

Can two walk together unless they be agreed?

Refusing to supply defensive weapons (that’s what they said about Iran’s S300 system) that they have contracted (promised) to provide. Breach of contract. Is that not intervention? Painting a bull’s eye on someone’s backside is not exactly neutral. Maybe he has a better idea and Assad agrees. I hope so.
Now the independent countries of the world at least know they’re on their own when up against the Empire directly if not the proxies.

Putin has many overlapping problems, it’s a tough task he has got. I think that in such situations you stick to basic principles. Actually you always should even in good times, but politicians seldom do that. Expediency is such a temptation to them.

You know what? I think this could make things more dangerous. Even a cornered rat will fight.

“The longer the delay in the official announcement of who is to be the new Russian Defence Minister, the plainer it is that PM Dmitry Medvedev wants to oust Sergei Shoigu from the job because he is a rival presidential succession candidate; and because President Vladimir Putin is afraid of the Stavka, the combined forces of the Defence Ministry, General Staff, the intelligence services, and the military-industrial complex, if by dismissing Shoigu Putin is seen to be capitulating to the enemy on each of Russia’s war fronts…”

John Elmger is engaging in obvious click-baiting and writing a lot of nonsense. I do not consider him a serious source.
The Saker
PS: and Shoigu has been approved (and there is no Stavka)

I noticed sadness between this last comment / analysis of Saker and the penultimate, when he briefly outlined the names brought / maintained by Putin in his new government. His analyzes are works of art and precision, and involve concepts in no way superficial, including human behavior. There is doubt, is it inevitable that this dense and negative energy coming from the evil empire is still to be maintained for a long time? Another point (which I deduce from Saker’s writings) Putin suffered a serious setback in his struggle for Russia and a more spiritual world, which, in this time frame, can only be provided by Russia. Possible solution to this (also suggested by the Saker) is the crystallization of internal forces of Russia, whether its armed forces, perhaps, to not overthrow Putin, but to give him undoubted support in his struggle for a multipolar world.

Finally, there is the disgraceful zig-zag about the S-300 for Syria: first, yes we will do it, then, no we won’t.

I’m sorry, but there was no “disgraceful zig-zag” from Russia. There was only what well-meaning people who support Syria defending herself against Israeli aggression heard as “Russia will send S-300 to Syria” and felt it as “disgraceful zig-zag” when that didn’t happen.

Russia diplomats were very careful to say “we may” and “we are considering” and “we are no longer under any moral obligation not to” etc. That displayed no intention to send S-300s to Syria; but was clearly a reminder to ‘someone’ – we can do this if you push hard enough.

So I’m going to suggest that, for the time being anyway, Russia will NOT send S-300s to Syria, not because she’s in cahoots with Zionists or Anglozionists, but because, if she does, Syria will use them to shoot down Israeli airplanes and that’s a no-no. That’s a very big huge Kilomanjaro-sized no-no. Quite simply. Syria shooting down Israeli (“just defending Israel”) warplanes over Lebanon or Jordan will be the outrage-excuse the US requires to start a full scale war (against Iran of course) in Syria.

Russia, with China, is waging an economic war against the US and things are now hotting up nicely. (US has now talking sanctioning NATO allies! NATO allies who are now talking to Russia. NATO allies who are asking “with a friend like the US who needs enemies?” This is a remarkable paradigm shift – so she’s really feeling the pinch of the vice these two have her in.)

What they are also doing, and must continue doing whatever the cost to national pride, is preventing the outbreak of a war with the US that could and would go nuclear.

Look at all the regions where the US is trying so hard to start a war: North Korea, Venezuela, Ukraine and the Middle East. Everywhere she tries to light the fire and fury – and every time Russia and China pour water on it. If they fail, we will all pay for it because I seriously doubt these two are going to back away for the threat of a war they always knew was there.

To myself, I’d tried to maintain certain idea to evaluate Russia’s strategic idea, and its movements and policies I try to correlate with it. In simple words, Russia’s idea is to enforce a “situation in which there is no way that Russia will be deprived from its geopolitical subjectivity (or destroyed)”

I’d like to know if there is any ground to that idea and some thoughts about how this last actions could correlate with it.

Thanks

Mod. All readers please note that there is no reason to double-post your comments. Moderators send duplicate posts to the Trash. Thanks

> even less so, on a “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” kind of fallacy

But that is exactly the foundation of all the demands of Russia fighting Iranian or Libyan fights and accusations of selling the off.

> we need to always let spiritual matters and moral crieria remain above any of our “pragmatic” worldly political considerations or national/ethnic loyalties

That is what Russia did in 19th century (Holy Alliance, becoming pan-european policeman protecting all states from colour revolutions and being backstabbed by them all)

And in 20th century (ww1, Entente Cordiale, becoming invasion and pillaging of Russia) too.

Then came USSR. Gladly, Trotsky was rooted out fast enough so Russia did not became every european leftist voluntary slave.

WW2 in Europe was mostly free of it as USSR was the main target. Still Stalin had to launch badly prepared invasion for the benefit of allies’ Second Front. And then that Anglo-Polish chuzpah…

Then came Japanese-Soviet war for no clear benefits for USSR itself. Shouldn’t USSR better negotiate territorial concessions from Japan or something like that? But USSR jumped into fight for the benefit of USA and Red China. As a reward, USA promptly bombed Soviet airfield, then lifted domino theory and started attacking Korea and Vietnam. Red China, which survived against USA+QMT due to Soviet support hesitated for a while, then sided with USA+Pakistan against USSR and with French Pol Pot against pro-Soviet Vietnam.

Then all those African states, eeeevul imperial neocolonial West was extracting all the resources el cheapo from their African colonies. What did USSR and Cuba got out of their intervention? Slowing down the Empire by somewhay disrupting their loot of resources. Was it worth it?

Then there was Arabs vs Israel. I already linked the article, comparing Putin stance today with pragmatic Stalin’s stance and spiritual Brezhnev’s stance. Of which aftermath even Saker himself writes bitterly above.

So, now Saker calls Russia to do it all again, becoming exhausyed and universally feared/hated yet more.
Russia should become a neo-Empire thay learnt nothing and nothing forgot….

> those of us who oppose the Empire and support Putin and Russia must imperatively make that support conditional upon a clearly stated set of moral and spiritual principles

While i have nothing against it i can’t help thinking Saker is “crashing through an open door” here.
Because that is actually what happenned.

Alt-right was fawning upon the greatest anti-zionist Putin and his loyal agent anti-zionist Trump. Now they hate them both.

One my Montenegrin ex-penmate continuously demanded Russis to fight for Kurdish cause. I really struggle why someone from a nation, who was robed by externally backed minority for KosMet lands could wish syrians the same fate. And accuse meek Russia of failure(sic) to help Kurds and America to kosovize Syria too. But that is my 1st hand experience.

Girkin and Co demand Putin to abandon Syria and install their monarchist pseudo-White-Russian rule over Ukraine. Thy sung him osannahs back then, now thry curse him.

“adequate ukrainians” demanded Russia to military occupy Ukraine, destroy their enemies and then install them into the power over independent adequate Ukraine. They asked for it in 2013, in 2014, in 2015… And they still do.

No, really, what is with that “unconditional support”, where on esrth does it exist in measurable quantities? It was already support for Russia as a real or imaginary device to fulfill someone’s wet dreams, nothing more.

Again, i support the ides that this should be clearly spelled out, for people who try to take Russia on short leash by claims of love and alliance are getting under our skins indeed.

I read the article and and agree that Saker makes a very broad analysis of president Putin and Russia in resent in situations, still i get to see the tendence to the negative and i think therussians are still acting ackording to their plans. It is better to appear weak and hide your real moves from adversaries than to give away all your cards. I think Putin has clear vision of what he wants and makes moves to achieve it, even if things may look like a surrender to others. He does think in longer term than in short PR victories.
Read this article in same sakerblog:

Very interesting and give us some more light in the fog of geopolitical moves of Putln in this proxi war. Lets remenber this is war of attrition, a marathon not a 100 meter race, so to speak, and the one whos saves it energies and resources the most and choice his battles wisely will win in the end. It takes much more energies to attack as USA does than to defend as Russia does. Russians will choose in surgical way which battles to engage against the empire to cause maximal pain at minimal pain for Russia. As masters of art of war do, when your opponent is stronger than you(financially and military in terms of numbers). Things will become clear in just few years time.

”First and foremost, as I have already explained in great detail in the past, Russia has absolutely no legal or moral obligation to support, protect, arm, train or otherwise assist anybody in the Middle-East. None. Russia has already done more for Syria than the entire Arab/Muslim world combined with the notable exception of Iran and Hezbollah. As for the Arab/Muslim world, it has never done anything for Russia and still is doing nothing. So those who like to whine about Russia not doing enough simply have no case whatsoever.”

I am sorry – Russia is in Syria for one reason and one reason only and it has absolutely nothing to do with morality or legality. The policy is primarily is to defend Russia’s national interests and security. Nothing wrong with this it is realpolitik. For if Russia does not stop the rot and confront and defeat the Jihadis in Syria, it will be fighting them in Chechnya (again) and Dagestan. Every Russian retreat emboldens the AZ-Empire. The retreat from Berlin has brought NATO right up to Russia’s borders thanks to the spineless policies of Yeltsin and Gorbachov. Ergo, Russia has every incentive to arm, train, and support and assist anti-hegemonic states in the middle-east, just like it did in Vietnam.

Russia would be wise to take a leaf out of the US foreign policy book: instigate colour revolutions, aid anti-hegemonic forces everywhere, and above all stop trading in US$s.

Putin cannot allow Israel/US to attack and occupy Iran. If Iran falls then so will Syria. The Zionists will then run several pipelines from Syria, Iran, Saudi, and Qatar into Europe thus cutting off Russia from their primary market and collapsing their economy. Now Trump’s sanctions on Nordstream II make perfect sense and leave Europe with no other option to total servitude to the Zionists. I thought Putin was a smart guy. Even an idiot can figure this out what is going on.

And there are a lot of people here wise and with sense of humor, my pleasure to read their comments.

Talking about tricks,maybe the ” split ” between USA and Europe regarding the Iran deal is to push Europe metamorphosing into a United States of Europe,the globalists dream,opposed to Charles De Gaulle, Europe of free nations.( one aspect ). After that, back on track!

Cat ( catter ) Pillar was right about money too,I enjoyed that comment.I wont say anything about war,this is like breathing air nowadays.

“Talking about tricks,maybe the ” split ” between USA and Europe regarding the Iran deal is to push Europe metamorphosing into a United States of Europe,the globalists dream,opposed to Charles De Gaulle, Europe of free nations.( one aspect ). After that, back on track!”

the game again..it fits! which leads me to spec on the DPRK/USA dialogue flow: that appears to me to be the most illogical of developments, signed by the picture of Kim..looking ridiculous, like a disarming Gaddafi before his horrific murder… shutting down his nuclear test facilities.

what in the hey is this all about..did China push Kim into a disarmament mode and direction. if so why?

is China going to defend the DPRK?

we can conclude by the discussion above that Russia isn’t going to defend the DPRK!

why would Kim even consider disarming his country..to depend on China..if its China behind this move. and again… if it is indeed China what would motivate China to disarm DPRK?

this is most illogical… this development. the DPRK should not even be in a discussion about disarming. all the evidence, all history suggest that this is the most illogical of developments… indeed.

and the USA is in its customary expectant blackmailing mode relative to the DPRK and the upcoming ‘disarmament’ talks…a blackmail that will never stop until the DPRK is on the floor, on its knees, all cocked-up; or on its back, legs spread like a roasted fowl, and all cooked….with the western corporate minuscule, large and fat, getting down in comprehensively penetrative mood and mode, prepared to eat it all.

Sitemap

Saker Android App

An Android App has been developed by one of our supporters. It is available for download and install by clicking on the Google Play Store Badge above.

All the original content published on this blog is licensed by Saker Analytics, LLC under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA 4.0 International license (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). For permission to re-publish or otherwise use non-original or non-licensed content, please consult the respective source of the content.